We Were Born Sick
by Sage Londyn
Summary: Starling Wayne, has always found herself feeling at home moving along the shadows in the criminal underbelly of Gotham. Small and able to move lightning fast she goes by the name 'Bird' on the streets. After her parents death, she's forced to take a hard look at where her choices have gotten her –while trying to gain her footing in the ongoing war for power. • Season 1 •
1. Morning Glory

**I**

" _I had learned early to assume something dark and lethal hidden at the heart of anything I loved. When I couldn't find it, I responded, bewildered and wary, in the only way I knew how: by planting it there myself." ― Tana French, In the Woods_

* * *

"I still care for you deeply, but I don't believe you care for me anymore." Fish Mooney said as she leaned over one of her former employees named Raoul.

With an agonized cry that echoed through the alleyway he tried to back up to get away from the repetitive blows from the metal bat that Fish had been using on him for the last several minutes; each of which had felt like an eternity.

Blood from an open wound on his forehead dripped into his eye, leaving a crimson red cloud over his vision when he looked up at her.

"I c-care for you…" He stuttered out, his voice broken between his cries and gasps of air through the pain.

"Then where's my money?" Fish questioned, leaning in towards him as she held the bat at her side waiting on his response.

"I don't…" He heavily breathed, wiping the blood from his eye, "I didn't-"

Fish's eyebrows raised wondering if he'd actually be brazen enough to try and deny he'd been stealing; her voice raised with anger gracing every sharp syllable when she asked, "You didn't what? You don't have my money or you didn't take it in the first place?"

There was a long beat of near silence, the air filled with the sounds of rain and cars passing on the street out in front of the popular dive bar.

"Bird, I believe Raoul here is calling you a liar." Fish said, looking over to the young woman who stepped forward upon hearing her name being called.

Her dark waves hung heavy against her scalp from the weight of the rain water that left her shivering beneath her favorite black leather jacket.

"I told you what I saw." Bird stated, pulling the dark hood of her thin under-jacket up and stepping up next to her boss as she clarified, "He's been stealing from you. Saw him with my own eyes."

Raoul looked up fearfully, wondering if this is how he'd meet his fate. Drenched in rain with a chill that ran deep into his bones, in an alley behind where he used to work. Surrounded by unfriendly faces and emotionless stares, he hardly felt that the punishment fit his crimes.

Fish eyed her youngest employee, seeing her jaw locked in a tense hold, hands down at her sides with her fingers curled and locked into tight fists; the same hungry, revenge seeking look in her almost vacant eyes that she'd been wearing since her parents were murdered just a few nights before.

Holding the bat out to her, Fish nodded in silent permission that she was now taking the lead in retrieving the money that had been stolen from her boss. Reaching into her sleeves, she pulled the fabric of her inner-jacket cuffs down over her hands before taking the bat and using the dry fabric to get a better grip on the rain slicked handle.

An emotionless, void glaze slid over her dark brown eyes as she pointed the end of the bat at a cowering Raoul and questioned, "Are you calling me a liar?"

No longer was the sole purpose of this beating to teach him a lesson and retrieve the club profits he'd stolen, it was now about respect. About her reputation and there was no backing down.

Before he could even get his mouth to form an answer, Bird swung the bat until it collided roughly with his shoulder and he could swear he felt every bone in his arm shift upon impact.

Another loud crack of the bat against his body, and he was down on his knees without being sure of how he'd gotten there.

"Stronger than she looks, isn't she?" Fish questioned, with a dramatic laugh. He didn't dare look back up to see any of their faces, but he could hear the twisted smile in her voice as she spoke.

Feeling a single cold drop of rain land on her cheek, Fish looked over to see her umbrella boy Oswald paying more attention to Bird beating on Raoul than he was to his job.

"Boy!"

"Sorry!" Oswald spilled an apology instantly, as he rushed sideways to make sure she was back, safely under the umbrella.

With one of her darkly painted, sharp pointed nails that almost resembled talons she pointed to him as she warned, "If you let this hair go frizzy, you will be."

A searing, white hot pain radiated from the same injured shoulder when Raoul was hit yet again. Defensively, his hand landed over it, trying to protect the bones from any further damage. A move he almost immediately regretted when the bat slammed against his fingers and in response his entire arm went numb.

"Okay, okay!" His voice came muffled from behind his gritted teeth, "I… I did it, I took –I took the money."

"So you're not calling me a liar?" Bird pushed, raising the bat like she was going to strike him again at any moment.

"No!" He yelled, throwing himself backwards onto a puddle growing on the uneven pavement, "I… I wouldn't ever say that."

"Where's my money?" Fish barked a repeat of her earlier question, only this time he immediately promised, "I'll get it. I'll get your money."

Bird raised the bat again and tears mixed with the rain on his cheeks as he flinched, assuming this blow was going to be worse than the others. Each strike of the metal against his skin and bones felt harder than the last, or maybe it was just his body losing the fight –he wasn't sure.

A sharp laugh cut though the alley and chilled him in a way that the rain couldn't begin to touch. The noise was loud, maniacal even with a touch of hysteria that bounced back from the brick walls on either side of them and for a moment she was no longer a nineteen year old girl walloping on him with the bat –he felt like she was an omnipresent force that had him entirely surrounded.

With a pained, trembling hand held out in front of his face he found the courage to look at her, but it was as if something else was wearing her skin. Despite being composed of the same physical attributes as his own –she barely seemed human. The look in her eyes showed she was barely even present in the situation. Bird, had gone to some dark corner of her mind where it was acceptable to ruthlessly cause someone else pain.

"Ma'am, Detective Bullock is here." One of Fish's waiters announced as he joined them outside in the coating of rain falling from the overcast Gotham sky.

Nodding, she removed her coat and handed it to him before looking back to everyone in the alley and commanding, "Keep him warm."

"Yes, ma'am." Butch Gilzean assured her, as she turned and headed into the building.

A few moments of silence passed until he turned his attention to Bird and questioned, "You finished or you wanna take another crack at him?"

Pulling a breath she shook her head back and forth, extending her arm and handing him the bat before quickly pulling her hand away and hoping no one out there saw the shakiness in her movements. She'd spent years trying to prove herself to everyone there; show she was capable of cutting it with the best of them.

Raoul, remained crouched down on the ground. Feeling relieved on the hope his beating might be over, but he'd counted his blessings too soon.

"Hey, Oswald. You want a turn?" Butch questioned.

Surprise flooded over his face as he questioned, "May I?"

"Knock yourself out, kid."

"Thank you, Mr. Gilzean."

Bird looked over to Oswald Cobblepot with a laugh under her breath as she shook her head at him. Always so polite, but she knew the darkness inside of him that his superb set of manners hid. In fact, she knew him better than anyone else. Out of everyone she'd met on her descent into the criminal underworld, she trusted him. He'd turn on anyone to save his own skin –throw anyone under a bus if he had to –anyone except for her. He was her best friend.

A fatal attraction in its own right, not necessarily a romantic one, but still the bond they shared was rooted deep. Finding each other had allowed them both to let their violent side flourish without fear of judgment from the rest of the world. With their flaws on display; they understood each other in a way that very few people could.

Surveying the small group around him, Oswald used to the tip of the bat to poke at and taunt Raoul even further.

Upon seeing the bloodied, broken, terrified man recoiling away from him, he laughed. His voice raising and echoing through the alley, growing with every jab he'd given Fish's former employee.

His grip tightened on the bat and his smile grew as he prodded at him some more. His laugh grew more maniacal with every passing second as the high of being in control, of feeling so powerful set in. He held the weapon and essentially held Raoul's life in his hands.

For the moment, he wasn't just an umbrella boy. Holding the fate of someone's life made him feel like a god.

A feeling that only intensified with the first actual strike of the bat he delivered; there was a loud crack; possibly the sound of bone breaking and splintering beneath Raoul's bruised flesh –he wasn't entirely sure.

He pulled in a deep breath, holding the scent of rain and wet pavement deep in his lungs as he dealt out a few more harsh blows with the metal bat. Each time the crack sound carried through the air.

Bird, looked to the side where two of Fish's goons stood, watching her friend with judgmental stares on their faces. She knew they thought he was crazy, with a slight shrug she considered maybe somewhere deep inside he truly was or perhaps just more twisted than your average Gothamite –if that was the case than she was too.

Her thoughts were brought back to the present when she saw Oswald deliver three very hard hits of the bat to Raoul's back as he tried to scoot on the ground away from him.

"Oswald!" She called out, getting his attention as he looked up at her she pointed out with a half-smile, "It's easier to hurt the living over the dead –we need him alive."

He let out the breath he'd been holding as her words sunk in, he opened his mouth to say something but one of Fish's goons taunted, "Yeah, take it easy Penguin!"

Oswald's eyes cut over to him. Their normal bight blues clouded in rage as he hissed through gritted teeth, "You know I don't like to be called that!"

"Ooh, scary!" He continued to taunt him.

Biting down on the inside of her cheek, she fought back a laugh. Maybe Oswald wasn't so physically imposing and being so polite and well-spoken didn't make him seem like much of a threat –but he was intelligent. Much smarter and more clever than anyone gave him credit for; his biggest advantage was that he was so easily underestimated.

"How's everybody doing?"

Bird, along with everyone else outside looked over to see who'd seemingly snuck up on them.

"Who are you?" One of the goons asked.

"James Gordon." He answered, eyeing the small group before adding with raised eyebrows, "GCPD."

"Oh, you came with Harvey, huh?" Butch questioned, plastering on a smile with his introduction, "Glad to know you, James. I'm Butch Gilzean."

"Drop the bat." Gordon ordered, his gaze landing on the smallest of the men outside, who was clutching an umbrella in one hand and the crimson stained bat in the other.

"Ah, come on now. Oswald and Raoul here, were just having a little fun." Butch argued, still smiling as he placed a hand on Raoul's shoulder and gave a warning squeeze.

"All in fun." Raoul stuttered out, still kneeling on the ground as he avoided eye contact with anyone out there.

James opened his mouth to point out the bloody mess in front of him hardly seemed like it was in good fun, but his gaze landed on the only female outside in the alley.

Her lean frame cloaked form fitting dark denim jeans, tucked inside of black boots and her top half covered in a tight leather jacket. The thin dark hood she was wearing didn't offer her long dark waves much protection from the falling rain –nor did it do much to hide her face from him.

"Wayne…" He breathed, getting her attention, "Starling Wayne?"

Her dark lined eyes squinted slightly as she looked over at him and shook her head back and forth, "Bird." She corrected with the name she had preferred to go by for the last few years.

He couldn't hide the shocked look on his face as he stared back at her. The leather clad young woman standing in front of him, seeming completely complacent around members of the mob, was a far cry from the teary eyed teenager he'd interviewed the day after her parents were found dead in the theater district earlier that week. In a million years he'd never expect to see a Wayne working for Fish –who was a well-known underboss for Carmine Falcone.

"Did you need something?" She questioned, the dimple in her right cheek starting to show as her muscles tensed when she fought back a smug smile at seeing how taken aback he was. There was a glimmer in her eyes as she spoke.

"You're a new guy, huh?" Butch questioned, "How do you like Gotham so far?"

Pulling his eyes away from Bird, he cleared his throat and gruffly replied, "Well enough."

Looking back down to Raoul, Gordon knew there was nothing that could be done unless he was willing to speak out against the others there and it was clear that wasn't going to happen.

"See you around." Gordon stated as he pulled open the door to the back stairway entrance for the club. Pausing he looked back and offered a small parting nod as he politely said, "Miss Wayne."

"Detective." She nodded back, barely glancing over at him before he disappeared into the building and the door slammed shut behind him.

"I take it he's not with the program." Butch reasoned with a laugh as he walked over to pick the bat up.

"Not yet." Bird breathed.

The day after her parents had been murdered, she'd been called into the station to be questioned over information she might have that would help catch her parents' murderer. Before she left, James Gordon had made her the same promise he'd made her younger brother the night it had happened –that he'd find the man who did it.

He seemed so sure of it that Bird almost believed him, but this was Gotham City. Even the straight arrows who landed there, were forced into bending along with the crooked ways of the city.

It was just a matter of time.

 **~(A few days later)~**

Keeping her head down, Bird made her way through the bustling morning sidewalk lined with food stands and other street vendors. A soft breeze carried the scent of freshly baked pastry dough with it and despite still being slightly hungover from her night of drinking alone in her apartment until she passed out at some point after listening to her neighbors argue through the wall next to her livingroom, her stomach ached from emptiness.

Raising the dark sunglasses that were almost too big for her face up from her eyes she located the source of the scent and figured she could be a little late to her meeting if need be. Putting the sunglasses back in their place, she strolled over to the line and managed to slip in unnoticed towards the front of the line, right between a woman yelling at someone on her cellphone and a man with his nose buried in the morning paper.

She could just barely make out the cover story through the dark lenses shielding her still dry and sensitive eyes from the harsh morning sun, a complete contrast to the dreary rain filled week they'd been having.

' _HERO COPS SLAY WAYNE KILLER'_

The headline caused the acid in her stomach to sour until breakfast didn't sound at all appealing. The day after the police had been to see Fish Mooney, she'd been informed that they were going to frame someone for the murder. A lowlife street criminal named Mario Pepper –who was now dead after fleeing from the same two detectives who'd been at the club.

' _This is better for everyone. This is what Gotham needs, for the case to be tied up quickly. No loose ends.'_ The words had apparently come straight from Falcone. The Wayne's had been pillars of the community and since their murder there had been widespread panic that the person responsible for the senseless tragedy was still roaming the streets of Gotham.

Stepping out of the line for food, she pulled in a couple of deep breaths. Maybe it really was better this way, for not only the people of Gotham –but for her little brother.

Sure, she wanted the person who'd killed them to pay for what they'd done –but from what she knew there were no leads at all on the case before the plan to set up Mario.

Crime; up to and including murder was a common, daily thing. Most open cases remained unsolved and logically she knew they may never know who actually pulled the trigger.

At least this way there would be some sort of closure for everyone, even if it was false. In a way she almost wished that they hadn't even included her in the scheme, that she could also be blissfully ignorant to the fact that their murderer roamed free. But they couldn't have any loose ends, couldn't take the chance of her finding it a little too coincidental that the very next day after Fish was talking to the police that the murderer was caught. So instead, they trusted her with the information that not only would make her an accessory to the matter –but the weight of it had also involved her spending the prior day drinking everything she could find to numb the guilt.

Just as she started to take her phone out of her purse to check the time, something caught her eye. An unmarked police car parked just across the street with a very familiar face in the backseat.

At first she considered Oswald had possibly been arrested for his involvement in any number of crimes. That was until, she saw him get out and walk away on his own free will.

Ignoring the sun burning at her eyes, she took her sunglasses off and crossed the street. Being sure to not look in the car as she went by until she caught up with him just around the corner.

"Please, tell me you didn't just rat Fish out… to the GCPD."

Startled, he spun around and let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was just her.

"We both know what happens to snitches!" She hissed, jabbing him in the shoulder with a finger as she spoke.

Not letting him get a word in she added, "And to the GCPD? Over half of them are on someone's shady pay roll!"

With another harsh jab of her finger that landed on his upper chest that time, he slapped her hand away from him and pulled her into the ally just behind them.

"Not these detectives. They're not on anyone's payroll." He assured her as he pulled his own sunglasses off to get a better look at her. They hadn't spoken at all the day before and she didn't show up to Fish Mooney's when she was supposed to.

Her slightly blood shot eyes narrowed at him even more and he just barely blocked another incoming jab of her accusing finger as she hissed, "This isn't the way to push Fish out! You've probably just signed both of our death warrants."

Glancing around to make sure no one was nearby spying on them, Oswald said, "I admit, I may have acted in haste."

Her eyebrows raised at him, showing she thought his choice of words were a severe understatement.

"I gave them more than enough to implicate her in the framing of Pepper." He explained, with a confident smile on his lips, "A simple move of follow the breadcrumbs, if you will."

Seeing the expression on her face he pointed out, "You, as well as I know that Falcone is old. He's losing both his touch and control over Gotham. His rivals are hungry. Your parents deaths started a war. Everything is changing."

"You think I don't know that?" She questioned, not giving him time to answer before she took a few steps back and shook her head, "You are going to be the death of us both."

"I know what I'm doing… what I'm up against here." Stepping closer and lowering his voice he referenced Don Falcone's nickname of 'The Roman' as he added, "We both know it's time for a new reign in Gotham. Time for the Roman Empire to fall."

Her eyes moved back and forth over his face, realizing exactly how proud of himself he was for the plan he'd devised. She knew better than to underestimate him –but that still didn't mean he was incapable of having a foolish idea now and then.

"And… we already know that Fish is working with Nikolai to overthrow Falcone. I still think we should just bide our time until they do. Wasn't that the plan anyways? Stick with her until she takes over the empire and then work on pushing her out. Remember? A move that no one would see coming." Bird complained, her lips pursed into a thin line as she stared at him.

She wasn't sure if the sick feeling in her stomach was left over from the day before now or if it was a sign his plan was going to blow up in their faces. But she could feel a shift in the tides –something was coming, something big.

"Getting Fish out of the way now only opens the door to ruling this city sooner."

With a roll of the eyes, she sighed, "You can't actually think this is going to work."

"On the contraire my little bird, I do." He smirked at her. It was a good day, he could feel it in the air. Since he'd first made his way into Fish Mooney's and gotten in her good graces, he'd been plotting her downfall. It felt good to finally be taking steps towards his goal.

"I've got to go. I'm already running late for an appointment." She excused herself as she started to walk she turned and said, "But the next time you're going to snitch on someone –don't do it where anyone walking down the street can see you or you know, just don't snitch."

 **~()~**

"Miss Wayne?"

Starling raised her head from the book she'd been reading to kill idle time as she sat in one of the uncomfortable benches in a small waiting room.

"Bird." She corrected with the nickname she preferred to go by.

"I'm sorry?"

Tucking the book back in her bag, she stood up and offered the young attorney a smile when she saw his eyes cut over to the large windows, trying to see what she was talking about.

"I go by the name Bird." She explained, her smile growing as his eyes locked with hers.

"Harvey Dent." He greeted, extending a hand to her and unable to hide the surprised look on his face when she shook his hand, looking down he said, "You've got quite a grip, Miss Wayne."

"Bird." She corrected again, still wearing the same smile as moments before.

"My apologies, it just seems a little unprofessional to be calling you by a nickname." Harvey pointed out. His eyes landed on her lightly glossed lips when she pulled in a breath and opened her mouth, presumably to protest against the formalities of the situation, he countered, "A compromise… first name basis?"

"Sure, I'm all for a little compromise." She agreed, pausing for a moment before adding, "Harvey."

With a smile, he motioned down a hallway and said, "Let's talk in my office."

Without protest, she followed behind him her eyes taking in the surroundings as her curiosity grew with each passing second and each footstep.

Once they were in his office, he motioned for her to have a seat facing the large cherry oak desk he had several folders and open case files on before he stacked them into a neat pile. Her eyes quickly scanned the names still trying to gather a clue as to why she'd been called to the district attorney's office.

"Miss Wayne… er, Starling." He quickly caught the mistake on his tongue before he offered a sincere and empathetic apology for the recent events that had been splattered across the front page of every local paper, like the blood that ran stale in the streets and back allies of Gotham. "I'm sorry for you loss."

With a quick, efficient nod in thanks, she let it be known that her patience was wearing thin and that this entire situation was nothing but a waste of time. "Look, Harvey… I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not connected to whatever case you're trying and honestly even if I was; I'd be no help."

His eyebrows lowered in confusion for a brief moment until he realized out loud, "They didn't tell you over the phone what this was about?"

He took her silence as a confirmation and pulled in a deep breath as he began to explain, "You're not here about any criminal case. I was just as surprised when this came across my desk as well, but it seems your father, Thomas Wayne, left instructions with our office to handle this."

Pulling open a drawer to his desk he pulled out a tall manila envelope, glancing up at her he saw a confused expression still gracing her features in the fluorescent lighting from above.

"Upon your father's death, he bequeathed to you a fraction of his shares in Wayne Enterprises along with-" His voice trailed off as he read over the paper and blew out a breath before looking back to the young woman in front of him and adding, "A substantial inheritance."

"Miss Wayne?" He questioned when she showed no reaction at all to the news.

"That's not possible." She finally spoke, the soft dark brown waves of her long hair brushing over her shoulders as she shook her head back and forth, "My father and I didn't get along at all. He left everything to my younger brother, Bruce."

Sliding the papers across the desk to her, he remained silent as he watched her take in the newly gained information –life changing information.

"I –I, I don't understand." She stammered, her eyes darting back and forth rapidly across the printed and signed documents, proof that her parent's left something for her when they left this world.

"Wayne Enterprises has countless lawyers on retainer, not to mention I didn't even know this sort of thing was done here." With a shrug, she guessed in a whisper, "I guess a lawyer is a lawyer."

"Like I said, I was just as confused as you seem to be."

With one look from her piercing brown eyes, she let it be known there was no way in hell he was as confused as she was. That wasn't even in the realm of possibility.

Putting her game face on she offered a coy smile as she said, "Right, you assistant district attorneys are too busy trying to clean up the streets of Gotham."

"Some of us are, yes." He replied with a curt nod.

Reaching into the envelope again he pulled out a smaller white envelope with her name written on it in a script she'd recognize anywhere, it was her father's handwriting.

"This is also for you." He said, sliding it across the desk to her. Seeing her hands shaking slightly when she picked it up he started to stand up as he politely stated, "I'll give you some time alone."

"That's not necessary." She declined, not looking up as she tucked the envelope into her purse and held her breath until the tears stopped burning at her eyes, still aware that he was hovering in an awkward half-standing/half-sitting position she cleared her throat and added, "Really, I don't think I'm ready to see what it says just yet."

Slowly returning back to his seat, he watched her for a few moments. Noticing she was no longer willing to make eye contact with him, he suspected it had something to do with the red hue that had taken them over. Amidst the emotional situation, she was trying to remain entirely composed.

"If you'd like, we could pick this back up another day."

"No." She answered quickly, finally looking back up as she explained, "I just want to get all this over with."

"Of course."

"I want my shares of my father's company and my inheritance… actually; I want all of my assets to go to my little brother if something were to happen to me. You can help me with the paperwork for that, right?"

"Um, I'd be happy to give you the number of some last will and testament lawyers." Harvey answered, not able to hide that the question caught him off guard.

"No, my dad didn't do anything without a reason behind it. I don't know why, but he picked your office to handle his affairs –he picked you." Her eyes were intense as they bore up at him from under her dark coated lashes.

When she saw from his expression that she'd gotten through to him, she breathed a small sigh of relief and added, "Now, please."

His eyes cut to the clock on the wall above the door to his office as he stated, "It will take a while, we could set up an appointment next week."

"No, I need to do this now. If something happens to me then I want to make sure everything goes to my brother."

The look on his face changed to one of concern and the wheels on the bottom of his desk chair squeaked against the grain of the carpet as he scooted closer to the desk and asked in a serious tone, "Do you think your life is in danger?"

"Not really." She shrugged, and her stoic expression gave nothing away as she said, "But one never knows what tomorrow holds, Mr. Dent."

It was well over an hour later when everything had been explained and the paperwork was done, once all the I's were dotted and the T's crossed, he called a secretary in to take the papers and make copies.

Once they were alone again, he leaned back in his chair, keeping his eyes on her, "I have to ask… why Bird?"

"Several reasons." She vaguely replied, as she stealthily plucked the pen up from his desk and slid it into her sleeve without him noticing.

Every answer she'd given since being brought to the office had only opened up more questions. He tried not to let it get to him, but it was clear to see she knew what she was doing. She was getting under his skin and making him want to know more about her all the while refusing to give anything more than a subtle stare or hint of a smile.

"I know a starling is a type of bird, I get the impression it's something that runs deeper." He pushed, his eyes moved back and forth taking in her soft features and catching the allusion of a smile that made her dimples appear for a fleeting second before she replied, "Everything is always more, always deeper than it seems, right? We're like icebergs, only showing about ten percent of who we really are."

"I get the feeling you don't even show ten." He said, as their eyes locked for a moment until the door to the office opened and the secretary returned with the document copies she'd made.

"Alright." He said to himself as he gathered up her copies and slid them into a new envelope, he stood up and she followed suit. "These are your copies."

"Thank you." She politely said, tucking the new documents into her purse and straightening out her dress, and looking back up to see he was holding a business card out to her, "Here's my card, in case you have any questions."

"Right." She smiled. She'd seen him writing on the back of one of his cards earlier, turning it over in her fingers she let out an airy chuckle at seeing a hand written number on that back, "And this?"

"In case you need anything, outside of office hours."

Silently, she tucked the card into her pocket and turned for the door until he stopped her by asking, "Really, why do they call you Bird?"

"Many reasons." She repeated, lingering in the doorway before turning back and answering, "I'm light on my feet, fast but strong."

Proudly displaying the expensive executive pen she'd lifted from his desk she flashed a smile as she admitted, "And I happen to have an affinity for shiny things."

His gaze dropped to his desk in disbelief, "That pen is actually expensive…" His voice trailed off as he looked back up to see she was nowhere in sight. Shaking his head with a small laugh, he dropped back into his chair to organize his end of the paperwork.

* * *

 **A/N- Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you all liked the story so far. I'm going to be following along with the story-line of Gotham (but will be changing/moving certain events around), while also adding in plot-lines for Bird as well.**

 **Also, you can follow me on Tumblr (sagelondyn) to see different edits and post to go along with this story.**

 **Please leave a review and let me know if you're interested in seeing this story continued and what you thought so far! ^_^**


	2. Running Wild

**II**

" _If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were to be annihilated, the universe would turn into a mighty stranger." – Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights._

* * *

Bird pulled open the door and walked into Fish Mooney's club, she glanced around and saw Butch off to the side of the room talking with one of Fish's new goons whom she hadn't bothered to learn the name of. They tended to not last long in the mob world, brute strength with no brains to back it up.

With a small sigh she walked behind the bar and picked a clipboard up from near the large display of bottles with colorful liquid inside them. They were just for show of course. The real stuff was hidden down underneath the bar and the last time she'd looked they were starting to run low.

Sitting down on the floor, she dropped her purse beside her and started to take stock of what they were running low on. Maroni controlled all of the liquor imports and exports so they'd have to let him know what they needed –which he usually complied with to keep the peace. Plus, it didn't hurt that Fish's place was a strong business –a real money maker.

" _What's going to happen to the cop?"_

" _We're taking him to Frankie."_

" _Who's Frankie?"_

" _Trust me, you don't ever want to find out."_

Bird's pen lifted from the paper she'd been writing on as she raised her head in response the approaching footsteps and conversation she'd over heard. She wasn't sure what cop they were talking about or what they'd done to make Fish so mad that she'd send him off to be disposed of in some of the worst possible ways.

"What about the little, skinny one… the one who held her umbrella?" The voice she didn't recognize asked.

"Penguin? Already sent off to Falcone, my guess is the yellow belly rat is already dead." Butch replied, stopping next to the bar stools and his sentence cut off in a laugh as he thought out loud, "Or wishing he is."

The clipboard fell from Bird's hands and landed with a soft rattling clank against the floor and the pen rolled under the bar.

Somehow finding the strength to pull herself to her feet, she gripped onto the edge of the wooden bar as she faced the two men.

"What happened to Oswald?" Her voice came out muffled from behind her teeth that were bared together so tight, her gums were aching.

Butch avoided her gaze as he glanced around and plastered on a smile, "Hiya, Bird. I didn't know you were coming in tonight. Haven't seen much of you lately."

Her now lethal gaze was locked on him, shooting hundreds of invisible daggers with each passing second he held his silence.

"Butch!" She growled.

"Major Crimes is onto what went down with Pepper. Apparently Penguin turned snitch." He finally answered her before admitting, "Couldn't even take what he had coming to him like a man –tried to say I was the one who snitched."

"H-how long ago was this?" Her words came out in a stammer as sweat beaded at her temples. Maybe there was something she could do to save him, make a trade with someone for information she knew or a lifetime of favors.

"Let it go." Butch sighed as he shook his head, he'd seen that slightly crazed look in her eyes before and he knew the two had been close. But Oswald had betrayed Fish –he'd snitched and for that he had to pay the ultimate price. Those were the rules and if she was smart she wouldn't let emotion cloud her judgement. She may be one of Fish's favorites but that didn't mean she was safe.

Her eyes stung and her fists balled at her sides. The room around her started to blur and Butch's voice sounded like it was off in the distance –more noise than actual words. She wanted to lash out, to make someone physically hurt as bad as she felt inside.

A loud thud brought her back to the present time, and her eyes landed on Butch's hand which was flat against the surface of the bar where he'd slammed it down to get her attention.

"Come on." He shook his head back and forth as he spoke, "He brought it on himself."

Her mouth hung slightly open, her mind was still racing trying to process what she'd learned. Her best friend, the one person she'd trusted and relied on for the last few years was dead.

Hearing a dragging sound, her eyes cut to the side where she saw two men dragging an unconscious James Gordon through the main room, towards the back exit as one of them announced to Butch that the car was ready and Frankie had been called.

He looked at Bird, trying to gauge exactly how mad she was and if it was safe for Fish for him to leave with her there.

"I'm fine." She stated, her voice sounded almost alien to her own ears when she spoke. "Like you said… he brought this on himself."

Leaning down she picked the clipboard up and continued, "I'm just going to finish up here and then call Maroni's people with the list."

Rage flashed red behind her eyes and there was a pounding in her head that made it feel like her skull was going to burst and shatter, though her voice and her now emotionless expression gave nothing away.

Every cell in her body pulsed and ached with fury. She wanted Fish to suffer for having him killed just as much as she wanted him to be alive so she could kill him herself –she knew he'd screwed up talking to detectives the day before.

Setting the clipboard down on the counter, she walked out from behind the bar –her sight locked straight ahead on some invisible and unreachable point in the distance.

"Ah, Bird… I was starting to wonder when I'd see you again." Fish Mooney spoke, as she looked up from the paper's she'd been going over.

One look at the younger woman's face and she knew that she'd already heard the news about her friend.

"Now, I know you were fond of Penguin –" Fish started to say but didn't get the opportunity when Bird cut her off and hissed, "I was fond of Oswald before I even knew who the hell Fish Mooney was. He was my friend and you took him away from me!"

The two women glared at each other for a heavy minute before Fish raised her hand and smacked the younger woman hard across her face. Her nails leaving open placed over her cheekbones from the swipe.

The jolt of pain shook Bird from her revenge filled tunnel vison and with a gasp of pain she held onto her cheek before pulling her hand away to see the crimson stains on her fingers.

A look of rage flooded over her features and in response she raised her own hand to strike back, but Fish was one step ahead and caught her wrist in midair. Fish had known how Bird was going to react to being struck before she herself knew.

"You dare raise a hand to me?" Fish's voice roared through the main room of the club, as her grip tightened painfully around Bird's wrist, causing her let out a gasp of pain.

Pulling her closer to her, Fish was just inches in front of her face as she said through gritted teeth, "You were a timid, scared little girl holding a name she couldn't shoulder the weight of… you were nothing, a nobody when I found you bleeding half to death in an alley. I could have left you to die."

With a rough jerk she pulled Bird even closer, her lips were almost brushing against her skin as Fish added, "Don't make me regret not walking past you. I love you, as I have loved Penguin… he broke my heart!"

Pushing her backwards with much more force than necessary, she watched as Bird fell to the floor with a thud, but not before hitting her side against a booth table. Fish motioned with a hand to one of the goons she always kept around the club incase things got out of hand or she was threatened.

Wiping more blood from the open cuts on her cheeks, she placed her blood stained hand over her side and winced in pain before managing to pull herself on her hands and knees, but before she could stand up there was a sharp, intense pain on her wounded side. A pain she immediately recognized as the feeling of someone's boot trying to rearrange her ribs.

Dropping back to the floor and curling into a fetal position, Bird covered her face with her hands and tried to keep herself as compact as possible –making it harder for him to kick any vital organs.

There were a few more kicks before the attack stopped and she felt a hand gently run through her hair, the way a mother would do to comfort a sick child.

Pulling her hands from her face, she looked up to see Fish knelt down beside her.

"Get up." She instructed the nineteen year old.

Obeying the orders Bird raised up on her knees, but didn't dare try to rise any higher when Fish took her chin in her hand and held on tightly as she said, "You know… when I accused Penguin of being the snitch –he offered to open a vein right here and now. What would you do to prove your loyalty to me? My sweet, little, loyal Bird."

"I have never betrayed you." Bird said, her voice strained through pain and the uncomfortably tight hold that Fish still had on her jaw.

"You say that like you really mean it." Fish observed.

"I do."

"That's why you're still alive, baby girl." Fish stated, "I have to admit at first, when I knew there was a rat among us. You crossed my mind for a split second, after all it was your parent's murder we were framing someone for and you were the only one who knew about the necklace we were going to have planted. But then I thought, ' _No, not my loyal little Bird. It can't be her._ ' And then I realized you might have known about it, but someone else saw me with the replica. My umbrella boy, who's been on my hip at every turn. That's why he had to die, he knew too much and if the fool snitched once he'll do it again."

Letting go of her chin and giving Bird a few pats on her cheek which felt more like a mild slap, Fish continued, "Go home. You need to think that over, figure out who's side you're on because if you're not a hundred percent behind me on my every decision –then you needn't come back here."

Stepping back she looked around at the remnants of the broken chair she'd hit Oswald with and sighed at how much of a mess of the room had turned into.

"Clean this up before you go." She ordered, as she picked her jacket up from the booth she'd been sitting at and stormed off.

Dropping back to all fours, she tried to pull in a couple deep breathes but her sides ached and it felt like her lungs were burnt. Every cell of her body was on fire. She hated herself for not standing up for herself in the fight, but she knew if she'd stood up –shown an ounce more disrespect for Fish that she'd probably be dead instead of alive in agony.

Fish was a crime boss, she'd worked her way towards the top of Falcone's crime family. She'd earned the respect and fear that came with the sound of her name. Bird was still relatively new and technically a nobody –which meant if she stepped out of line she'd be struck down.

Still trying to pull in a breath, her mouth hung slightly open as she remained on her hands and knees staring down to the floor.

Oswald was dead, it killed her inside to know that, but the loss hadn't fully hit her yet. Her vision was still clouded from anger as she replayed the events that happened in the bar since she'd gotten there.

The lightbulb was practically visible through her skull as she remembered seeing them dragging Jim Gordon out of there, it was clear he was being sent to his death on Fish's orders. Falcone rarely gave the okay to kill anyone from the GCPD, which meant he more than likely didn't know.

After all, Fish was the type who'd rather ask for forgiveness than for permission.

Sitting down on the floor, Bird looked around to make sure she was alone before she pulled her phone out and called a number she wasn't even technically supposed to have, but she'd copied off of Fish's phone one day when she'd left it charging in a back office.

If Fish wanted to knock her down and remind her that she was a nobody in this world, then maybe Fish also needed a reminder that she wasn't on the top of the food chain either.

" _Hello?"_

Bird swallowed hard and closed her eyes, hoping this wouldn't be a call she'd regret making.

"Don Falcone." She greeted, "Sir, I'm sorry for calling your personal number. My name is Bird, I work for Fish Mooney and while I remain loyal to her… I understand that we all work under you and I just thought you should know that she's taken it upon herself to order the execution of Jim Gordon, a detective with the GCPD."

 **~(A few days later)~**

Hearing a knock at her door, Bird groggily raised her head from her pillows that she was sure after the last few days had to have a permanent indentation of on her face.

Sitting up on the side of her bed she went to stand up and cursed out loud when she stubbed her toe on an empty liquor bottle. With narrowed eyes at the bottle she stood back up and kicked it with the side of her foot under her dresser.

"I'm coming!" She yelled in a hoarse voice when the incessant knocking grew louder as she made her way out of her room and into the small living room.

Raising up to look out of the peephole, she saw a man and a woman. They looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place where she'd seen them before.

"What do you want?" She demanded to know.

The female answered as she displayed a badge within view of the peephole and said, "I'm Detective Montoya, this is my partner Detective Allen. We just want to ask you a few questions."

It was then she realized these were the two cops she'd seen Oswald talking to, the ones he'd exposed the cover up of her parent's murders to.

Removing the chain, followed by unlocking the deadbolt and doorknob, Bird pulled open the door and shot them both an amused looked with raised eyebrows.

"May we come in?" Detective Allen asked, when she didn't offer an invite.

"Place is kind of a mess… but sure, make yourselves at home."

Stepping farther to the side she allowed both detectives to enter her apartment, upon stepping inside they both exchanged looks before taking a seat next to one another on the couch.

Shutting the door, Bird walked over and sat in the chair facing them with one leg tucked up under her and the other bent as she rested her head on her knee and stared them down.

"This won't take long." Montoya assured her, "We're just following up on a missing person's case and we recently became aware of your involvement with the person in question."

When Bird remained silent, Montoya's partner Allen spoke up as he asked, "When was the last time you saw Oswald Cobblepot."

"Why? Guilty consciences?" She asked with feigned surprise, "The last time I saw Oswald he was in the backseat of your car. So whatever happened from there is on you."

"Miss Wayne we're just trying to-"

"Is that all?" Bird snapped at them.

"No actually it isn't." Montoya argued, letting her know she didn't appreciate the tone that was being taken with them. "You need to understand something… Cobblepot came to us on his own free will."

"I don't care." Bird shrugged, a cold indifference showing in her brown eyes as she readjusted slightly in her chair and stared the female detective down.

"How old did we find out she was? Eighteen… nineteen?" Montoya asked her partner, who pulled in breath and nodded, "Thereabouts, yeah."

"And I see enough alcohol in this place to stock a bar… along with all the empty bottles setting around."

Following her lead Allen added, "Not to mention the marijuana stench that hit us as soon as we walked through the door."

"You're gonna arrest me for that? Good luck getting the charges to stick. I'm sure the courts would be sympathetic to the pain I'm in right now, I did just lose my parents." She countered with an unfazed expression, "That is of course, assuming the case against me would ever make it into a courtroom. I am a Wayne after all."

"We're just trying to fit the pieces together here. You were his friend, right? All we're trying to do is catch the people responsible for… whatever happened." Allen reasoned, as he leaned forward and interlocked his fingers, drumming his thumbs together as he spoke.

"Obviously someone in power found out he'd turned rat." A pained look flooded over her face as she cleared her throat and in a quiet voice continued, "It's not hard to figure out what happened after that. This is Gotham, snitches don't get stitches… they wind up dead. It's life."

"Any idea on the specifics of what happened? We know you work for Fish Mooney."

"The minute I walk through the doors into Fish Mooney's, this strange thing happens. I only hear talk of non-criminal activity and my eyes go blind to anything illegal. So nope, can't help you there."

"Uh-huh." Montoya breathed, clicking her tongue against the back of her teeth before her eyes narrowed in question and she asked, "How does a Wayne even end up working under Fish Mooney with the likes of someone like Cobblepot?"

"That's the billion dollar question, right? Everyone wants to know how a Wayne could fall so far." A bitter smile spread over her lips as she added, "That's a story for another day and not relevant to your case."

"How long have you known Cobblepot?" Allen questioned, directing the conversation back to the task at hand.

Blowing out a breath that caused the loose hair in her face to puff up into the air, she admitted, "About four years now."

The detectives exchanged looks, still trying to figure out how the pair had ever even crossed paths.

Bird's eyes fell to Detective Allen's silver watch again. The way it kept reflecting the sunlight coming in through her windows kept catching her eyes, drawing her attention back to it like a moth to a flame.

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Montoya questioned, already closing up the small notepad she'd brought for notes. It had been clear that Bird didn't want to cooperate with them. Judging by her bruised and cut face, it looked like some of the backlash of what Cobblepot did landed on her.

Bird pulled in a breath, she didn't care for the GCPD and knew some of the blame for what happened to Oswald was on them. But more of the blame fell somewhere else.

"I know who killed him."

Her sentence peaked both of their interests as they looked at her.

"Detective James Gordon." Bird announced to them.

She'd made a call to Falcone to save his life, little did she know that the situation would end up with Gordon being the one to put a bullet into Oswald's head over Gotham River.

"How do you know that?" Allen asked her, in his mind it sure seemed possible. Whether he'd been paid money for the hit or it was a favor and show of respect to the Don.

They already knew he'd framed Pepper for the Wayne murders, if he'd take that far of a step into the corrupt –homicide wasn't that big of a leap.

"Frankly, you're asking all the wrong questions." She sighed rubbing her forehead before waving her hand through the air and dismissing the matter as she breathed, "No matter, fact is it's the truth and if you ask me, you should lock him up and throw away the key."

Her teeth gritted as she spoke. In the beginning she'd liked Gordon. Up until he took the most important person in her life away from her forever and left her trying to feel her way through an even bigger cloud of mourning and darkness with losing her parents and best friend within such a short period of time.

"Ask Fish, she will tell you same thing." Bird said with raised eyebrows, knowing that Fish would indeed tell the same story. She'd also get them to ask the right questions, such as –who held enough power in Gotham that they could order a cop to kill?

Fish was smart, Bird knew she'd use the situation as another attempt to drive Carmine Falcone out of power.

"That's all I have to say." Bird flatly stated, looking between as she said, "So, you go talk to Fish and I'm going to _not_ drink everything in sight and get high enough that I can forget I'm now even more alone in this eyesore of a city."

Montoya sighed, but stood up and nodded for Allen to follow suit. They had a lead now, and chances were if they could get Fish to talk –she'd know the ins and outs of the Cobblepot situation and might even be able to provide them with something concrete to take James Gordon down.

"Thank you for your time." Allen said politely as Bird opened the door and motioned for them to go on out.

"Obviously don't mention my name when you talk to Fish." She stated the obvious as she held out her hand to shake his.

Once she closed and locked the door behind them, she looked down to her hands where she now held his watch in her hands. She'd manage to expertly remove it without him noticing.

Walking into her bedroom she dropped the watch onto the top of a large goblet shaped decorative glass fish bowl she was using to keep the shiny things that caught her eye. Even getting something new couldn't brighten her mood that day.

Making it over to her bed, she collapsed back onto and it turned on her side facing her bedside table with the lamp that her mother had gotten for her when she first moved out on her own.

The base was constructed with transparent pink tinted glass, that showed all of the wiring and mechnisnims inside of it. The darker pink, tinted built in lamp shade was faceted with real pearls at all four corners.

Tears stung at her eyes, and she laid on her back with an arm draped over her eyes trying to hold back the tears as she blindly opened her bed side table and felt around for the bottle of high-dose tranquilizers she kept on hand for nights like tonight.

But in her feeling around through the contents of the drawer, her fingers landed on something cold and smooth. Immediately she knew what it was, the switchblade knife she'd plucked out of a puddle on the street when she was sixteen.

A weak smile was on her lips and tears in her eyes as she pulled it from the drawer and looked at it. It was still just as light reflective and shiny as she day she'd came to acquire it, there didn't appear to be a scratch on it. Then again, it was her only stolen possession that she took such great care of and kept it polished.

Flipping the blade out, she carefully ran her finger along it without cutting herself. Tears rolled from the outer corner of her eyes and down onto her pillowcase. Closing the knife, she placed it back in the drawer before locating the bottle of pills.

She took two of the tranquilizers and chased them down with a long drink from the open bottle of melon flavored vodka on her night stand.

Shutting the light off she laid flat on her back, arms out to the sides in the center of her bed as she stared at the ceiling. Waiting for sleep to come and release her from the painful reality she was living in.

 **~(Flashback)~**

Standing up Oswald straightened his suit as the bloody knife fell from his hand and landed in a puddle of water beside his shoes. His eyes drifted to the end of the alleyway where a car drove by, but luckily the driver didn't see the lifeless body lying on the ground.

Rubbing his hands over his face, he started to internally curse himself for losing control and letting his anger get the best of him. That was until he heard his victims voice in his head, still taunting him even though there was no more breath left in his lungs.

It was then Oswald decided it wasn't his fault, the blame fell on the other guy. He'd even turned off the main street into the alley to try and get away from the lowlife who'd been teasing him, but the man followed him tossing out hurtful jeers in his direction like one tosses out their trash.

Looking back down to the bloodied corpse he gave a small nod in agreement with himself –the guy had brought it on himself.

Doing a quick check of his clothes to make sure there were no visible traces of blood on him, he then hearing a noise from out on the street, he whirled around startled. When he didn't see anyone he picked the shopping bag he'd been carrying up and started to walk further down the alley to see what had caused the noise –that was until he heard a small splash from behind him.

"You should really take the knife with you… or at least wipe your finger prints off of it." Bird stated, as she jumped down from where she'd been perched on the awning just over the side entrance of the building.

Turning around, Oswald looked at the teenager as she slowly rose from where she'd landed perfectly in a crouch in one of the small rainwater puddles with her bare feet. His eyes cut up to the awning and he couldn't hide the look of surprise on his face at the distance she'd jumped from and landed without harm.

Her brown eyes took in his odd features and coal black hair as he watched with matched curiosity lighting up the blue hues in his own eyes.

Glancing up to the spot from where she jumped she admitted with a cocky half-smile pulling up at a single corner of her lightly glossed lips and revealing her dimples she admitted, "Nine years of competitive gymnastics."

"I'm Oswald." His tongue finally located the introduction he'd been fishing for since she first appeared in front of him, his words came with a polite nod and a growing look of curiosity in his eyes. Clearly she was aware he'd just killed someone –yet she didn't seem the least bit fazed.

"Oswald Cobblepot." He quickly added.

Her head cocked to the side, dark brown waves spilling over her shoulder as she thought out loud, "What an odd name. What do your friends call you? Oz? Ozzy… Wally?"

His ice blue eyes narrowed slightly, trying not to give much away, but the words burnt his tongue as he admitted, "Some people call me Penguin."

"Hmm." She hummed, her voice carried through the wind like a song.

The water rippled beneath her bare feet and started to soak into the bottoms of her pant-legs as she lightly stepped forward and questioned, "Why do they call you penguin? Is it because of your nose or the way you wear your hair?"

Normally such a question would anger him, but the manner in which she asked had the tone of a mere innocent question rather than trying to poke fun at him.

The closer she moved to him, he caught the unmistakable scent of marijuana on her clothes. Her eyes were bright and alert as she stared at him, waiting on an answer.

"I suppose one could guess all of the above." He stated, observing the dark blue sweat pants she was wearing with the light gray long-sleeved shirt.

His eyebrows lowered as he realized he'd seen several people wearing those same exact clothes from a ritzy, small, private pay institution just a few blocks away. Clearly the bright eyed teenager had managed to escape.

"Did he call you Penguin?" Bird asked, nodding to the guy lying dead on the cold ground, "Is that why you killed him?"

"Forgive me… I don't think I caught your name." He cut in, feeling like the conversation was turning into a one-sided interrogation when he knew nothing of her.

"You can call me Bird." She answered without missing a beat.

His eyes scanned her face, trying to figure out where the nickname came from. Aside from the slightly crazed look in her eyes, she appeared physically normal and appealing by all accounts.

With another look up at the height she'd leapt down from, he wondered if her ability to apparently soar between roof tops and jump down unharmed had something to do with it.

With a sigh she admitted, "The name my parents gave me is Starling."

Dropping down into a crouch she laid her left arm over the tops of her knees and rested her chin over it as she let out a heavy sigh, weighed down the burdens of someone much older than she was as she thought back to her life since being adopted into the Wayne family, "When I was a kid I didn't talk much. But my mom would catch me singing sometimes and she started to call me her little song bird. I hated it –but she did it anyways. I guess she thought it was cute or something."

Absent mindedly she plucked the knife up out of the puddle and swished the stained blade back and forth in the water to get the blood off of it as she continued, "So the first time I got arrested, the only name I'd give them was Bird." With a shrug she thought back to how her mom hadn't called her anything but Starling since she'd first started getting into trouble and whispered, "Showed her, I guess."

Another car drove past the end of the alley, causing them both to look that way until the fleeting sound of tires on wet pavement fell silent and they were left alone again.

"You're quiet." She observed.

"Perhaps you just talk too much." He countered, keeping his eyes on the knife she still had in her hand and trying to figure out why she was unloading her life story onto him. "The less you say, the more you hear. It's easier to gather information that way… and I like information."

"Smart." She nodded in agreement, "You could probably take over the world using that theory."

Stepping closer to where she was still knelt down and seeming concentrated on cleansing the blade in the water, a half smile spread over his lips when he said, "Perhaps I'll start by taking over Gotham."

Standing up still holding the knife in her hand she grinned, "I don't normally talk this much, but I haven't said a word to anyone in sixth months, you see."

"What happened six months ago?"

"Clever." She conceded, "Most people would have just asked why I hadn't spoken in so long."

A vacant look glazed over her eyes as her mind drifted back. Like normal for her fifteen year old self, she'd snuck out of Wayne Manor and spent the weekend partying –thriving in the shadows of the darkened city where she could just live as Bird and not carry the weight that the Wayne named held.

Her mother couldn't complain about her clothes if she couldn't see her and it became infinitely easier to avoid the disappointed look in her father's eyes if she wasn't at the house where she could run into him.

She'd spent most of the last few years running away from the life she'd been blessed with, and aside from the occasional fight or getting arrested for theft –she always made it back home safe. Whether she returned on her own or got picked up by the police. That was until the one night she didn't.

A night she'd replayed in her head over and over since it had happened. She'd been attacked by a man much bigger and stronger than she was –a horrific and violent attack that ended with two gunshot wounds and her bleeding out in a dark alley.

A shiver ran down her spine as the events flashed behind her eyes, pulling her back into the darkness and coldness she'd felt that night; a frigid coldness but just not quite strong enough to numb her.

Her soul ached from the memories, the way every cell of your body burns as it painfully regains feeling after going numb to the cold. That's what every day had felt like since she'd been attacked, like she was painfully coming back to life, only at times she wasn't sure who's life she was coming back to.

Oswald watched her intently, both curious about her and getting wrapped up in the glimpses of her life she was giving him. But he was also aware she was now the one holding the weapon, and while he didn't have any plans on hurting her –he couldn't be entirely sure she wasn't going to turn on him either.

Seeing she was still lost in her thoughts, locked away somewhere inside of her head that had pulled her from this world, he reached out and carefully avoided the blade as he grasped onto the exposed part of the handle and tried to pull it away.

Quickly she stepped back, and with the stone grip she had on the knife it went with her and left him empty handed.

"Where did you go?" He wondered, and also tried to act like he hadn't tried to get the knife away from her, "Just then, in your mind. Where did you go?"

"The darkness… the void."

Her answer was simple enough. It explained everything and nothing at the same time. He wondered if it was anything like the place in his head that pulled his active thoughts away when he lost control with his anger. His own darkness he fell into where at times he wasn't so sure he was in control of his own body.

Looking down to the knife, her voice was calm as she questioned, "Do you intend to kill me?"

"No." He answered with a slight shake of his head, "I don't want to kill you. I want to know you, I don't believe I've ever met anyone like you before."

"Then why did you try to take this from me?" She asked, holding the knife up.

Running his tongue over his lips, he honestly answered, "I think you might try to kill me."

Nodding to her clothes he pointed out, "I've seen other people wearing those same clothes… just up the street."

"At the looney bin?" She asked with a smile and hint of amusement, "You think I'm crazy."

"I'm trying not to pass judgment." He politely replied.

"I just watched you kill someone and you think I'm the insane one?"

"Are you?" He asked, a look of amusement on his own face.

He was right about what he'd said earlier, he hadn't ever met anyone like her before. Living in Gotham, he'd met all walks of life. Street people, low life thugs, crime bosses even a few people who wanted to save the city –but no one like Bird.

Somehow the chance encounter that he never saw coming had a warmth about it that shined through even on the cold, dreary day. He even dared to wonder if this was the start of something he'd never had before –a real friendship.

"I'm probably just as sane as you are." Her words were truthful, and her dimples showed as she smiled at him.

Watching him kill someone probably should have terrified her, after all it wasn't that long ago that she was bleeding out in an alley much like the one they were standing in now.

Since her attack she couldn't see the city the same way as before even the people looked different to her. No longer were they just passing faces on the streets –they were possible threats.

With a smile of his own, he agreed, "Probably so."

Closing the switchblade knife she clutched it in her hand as she said, "It was nice meeting you Oswald Cobblepot, but you see… I've recently escaped from a crazy house and I'm sure they already have people out looking for me. If they find me next to a dead body, they're going to assume I killed him."

"The pleasure of our chance meeting is all mine, I assure you." He said, still smiling, "But I should be going as well."

He reached out for the knife, but she put it in her pocket and a maniacal smile fell over her lips as she said, "Don't worry, it's not like I'm going to hand this over to the GCPD."

Before he could say anything, she'd already climbed on top of the closed dumpster and leapt up onto the fire escape, where she stopped and hung on with only one foot on the thin metal step and one arm casually linked through the side, looking down to where he stood she said, "Would you feel better if I gave it back?"

"Yes." He called out, his eyes not leaving her as she balanced perfectly on an unsteady looking metal structure attached to the tall brick building.

"You know where to find me, once they deploy all of the guards and the GCPD to find me. They'll drag me back to the house. All they feed me there is fresh fruit and vegetables." Rolling her eyes she sighed, just loud enough for him to hear, "Some sort of holistic healing meal plan."

"Come visit me. Bring me some real food and I might return your knife."

"Might?" He yelled, as she started to climb higher.

Pretending she didn't hear him, she continued her way up to the roof. Her entire life, she never felt like she belonged. Like there was no one out there who could understand the way she was and her ability to disconnect from her feelings and humanity.

Maybe the impossible was happening, maybe she was finally meeting someone who was like her; a friend. Something she'd never truly felt like she'd had before. Plus, getting a break from the nutritious rabbit food diet she'd been forced into would be a welcomed change from the normal as well.

Reaching the top of the roof, she pulled the knife from her pocket and ran her fingers over the shiny handle as she walked to the other side of the roof. It was perfect, she thought as she opened the blade back up. Both the handle and the blade were so shiny they reflected every ounce of light present on the rainy, cloudy day.

She hoped he would come see her sometime soon, but even if he followed through on her request for food –there was no way in hell that he was getting that knife back. She intended to add it to her ever growing collection of pillaged shiny objects.

 **~(End of flashback)~**

* * *

 **A/N- I hope you all liked the chapter. ^_^ I'm planning on doing several flashbacks to show how Bird got to be the way she is, and how the bond she and Oswald share, was formed.  
**

 **I'm sorry this update has taken so long, but within a few days posting this story my internet went down and dealing with the company has been nothing short of a nightmare.**

 **Thank you for sticking with me and I hope to be posting chapter 3 soon! There isn't much up about this story yet, but soon I should have edits and other things posted on my tumblr account (sagelondyn) and there is a video on the way. I'm so excited for this story and for Bird's character -I hope you all are too.**


	3. Broken Wings

**III**

" _It is madness for a sheep to talk peace with a wolf." –Thomas Fuller_

* * *

Pulling the dark hood from her jacket up over her head Bird stood in her bedroom looking in the mirror. Ever since meeting with Detectives Allen and Montoya, there had been a storm brewing inside of her.

For the past two days she'd been following Jim Gordon around, which for him mainly meant to the police station for work and then back to his girlfriend's penthouse apartment. There were a few times she'd been filled with so much rage she'd considered killing him.

At her darkest moments, usually fueled with a combination of drugs and alcohol, she'd gone so far as to think up ways of killing his girlfriend, Barbara. Taking someone from him so he'd feel what she was feeling inside. An eye for an eye.

Of course she hadn't acted out of rage –at least not yet. Logically she knew Barbara had nothing to do with what happened to Oswald and if she killed Jim and got caught –the blow-back of killing a GCPD detective would probably land her a life sentence in Blackgate, even if she was a Wayne.

So far, she didn't have a plan for the day besides picking up lunch from somewhere. She couldn't even recall the last time she ate something. For days she'd been avoiding calls from her brother and getting deeper into the darkness of losing three people she loved in such a short period of time.

She felt like in the last several days she'd probably only spent a handful of hours sober and it showed on her face. Painful bloodshot eyes surrounded by dark circles and her already fair skin was starting to look almost ghostly white, especially in contrast with her dark clothes of choice.

Walking into the closet, she rummaged through her coat pockets and bottoms of purses, gathering all the money she had on hand and put that into her purse for the day. Her guess was she had close to seven hundred dollars on her, which she was planning on putting towards a gift for Fish to try and get back into her good graces.

She missed working at the club and even though it wasn't like she needed to work for money, it would be something to help fill her days and nights with.

Just as she started into the living room there was a knock at her door. With a sigh she walked over and looked through the peephole to see a flower delivery guy with a bouquet in hand.

Pulling open the door she didn't give him a chance to say anything as she stated, "Pam lives in apartment nine, not nineteen." She said she referring to one of the neighbors in her building who had to have been seeing at least five different guys and had a constant stream of flowers being delivered from one suitor or another. On several occasions the delivery guys hadn't been paying attention and brought them to her door instead.

"Oh… uh…" He started to say, but she cut him off as she shut the door in his face and put her back against it, rubbing her hands over her face. After the week she'd had she was in no mood to be dealing with anyone –especially someone who must have been blind to the number on her door.

" _Hello?"_

Bird, looked over her shoulder at her door when she heard the delivery guy talking.

"I have a delivery for apartment nineteen. The order says it's for… Bird? It could be a misprint but –"

"Who are they from?" She asked, pulling the door back open and cutting his sentence off.

Looking down at the arrangement he shrugged, "Guess there's not a card."

Pulling a twenty dollar bill from her pocket, she shoved it into his hand as she took the flowers and muttered an apology for being so rude before slamming the door in his face yet again.

Once she got the arrangement set down on her kitchen counter, she stared at it. Trying to figure out who would be sending her flowers. She wondered if there was supposed to be a card at some point, because the card holder was in the display.

The arrangement was beautiful, white hydrangeas with smaller deep purple and dark red flowers giving it a dark pop of color. Her favorite part was several strands of small pearlescent, glittering glass beads that were strung together and draped throughout the flowers and over the clear vase. For someone who didn't care much about flowers –she absolutely adored the arrangement.

 **~(A few hours later)~**

With the loud sound of a car door shutting, Bird opened her eyes and wondered at what point she'd fell asleep crouched down in the back floorboard of the car.

She waited until the driver started the car and pulled out onto the road before she silently climbed up into the seat and scooted over to the middle so she could watch them in the rear-view mirror.

"Detective Gordon." She greeted, catching him entirely off guard and causing him to swerve into oncoming traffic before quickly over correcting and running the passenger side tires along the sidewalks edge.

"What the hell are you doing?" He angrily yelled as he quickly found a spot to pull over and shut the car off, still trying to catch his breath from the scare she'd given him.

A fact she seemed completely pleased with herself about –it was apparent from the look on her face.

Turning in his seat, he looked at her, every ounce of his expression demanding an answer from her –and a damn good one.

"Did you kill him fast or make him suffer?" Bird asked, her voice had a calmness to it that shot a chill down his spine.

"What are you –"

"Come on, Jim. You saw where I worked –the company I keep. There's no point in lying to me, I know you're the one who killed Oswald."

Jim looked at her, noticing for the first time how bad she looked. If he had to guess he'd say she hadn't slept in a week, not to mention the bruises and cuts that contrasted against her pale skin.

"Was it quick?" She repeated her question.

"I'm not talking about this… not with you." He argued, shaking his head.

"Why not?"

"Mainly because you don't know what the hell you're even talking about." He sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"I know more than you think, Jim Gordon." Bird said, lowering her head some and shielding her face in more shadows from her hood.

A look of confusion spread over his face at her words. At first her words sounded like a threat but now he wasn't sure. Most of all he wasn't sure what she was even doing there, it had crossed his mind that maybe she looked unstable enough she might try to kill him. Yet she sat still in the seat and hadn't made a move for him or a weapon.

Each time he crossed paths with the oldest Wayne child, he became more aware that the person she is –is a far cry from the teary eyed, seemingly innocent girl he'd talked to after her parents deaths.

"Starling, you need to get out." He instructed, nodding to the back door of the car. "I think you've been through a lot and you're not in a good place right now."

"Perceptive today, aren't we?" Her voice was seeded with sarcasm and he physically bit down on his tongue to keep his anger in check at her smart-ass remark.

"It's Bird. She corrected, "And I'm not leaving until I have said what I need to say to you."

"Okay…" He breathed, "Then talk fast, I'm running late."

"Please, you were almost an hour late to work yesterday. I think you can give me ten minutes."

His eyes widened with the realization she'd been following him, since at the very least the day before.

He opened his mouth to ask her what she was playing at, but he didn't get the chance as she pulled in a shaky breath and said, "I know Gotham has a way of breaking people in ways they didn't expect, but you know… I think for a minute I actually believed you could be different. The promise that you made both to my brother and I, that you'd find who killed our parents. I didn't believe it… Bruce did, but I thought the most important thing about it was that _you_ believed it."

"I'm still looking into your parent's murders." Jim stated, as he turned back in his seat and looked up to her in the rear-view mirror where she was still watching him.

With a small shrug she quietly said, "Gotham broke you faster than I thought it would."

"Cobblepot, was a friend of yours?" He questioned, she'd already made it clear that his disappearance was the reason she was there.

"We were the best of friends." She corrected, and in the mirror he saw her eyes grow dark as she raised her head to get a better look at him in the mirror.

Just like everyone else, he was curious as to how they'd met –let alone became friends. From what he knew Oswald was a low-level thug, an umbrella boy for Fish Mooney. Starling wasn't only a Wayne, but there was an age difference between them as well.  
As much as he wanted to know how they crossed paths, now wasn't the time to bring it up.

He needed her to stop digging around before she ended up finding out Oswald was still alive, somewhere. He hoped somewhere far away from Gotham. If Falcone found out he was still alive, they'd probably both be killed.

Choosing his words carefully he avoided her eyes in the mirror as he explained, "Look, I'm sorry he was your friend. But you know the way this sorta stuff plays out. The order came from Carmine Falcone, if I didn't do it then I was going to be killed."

"Right, and naturally your life means more than his did right?"

Jim's eyes cut back up to the mirror when he heard her question.

Seeing she had his attention, she pushed, "Why? Because he's just some street criminal? Because he was _just_ an umbrella boy? A low-life that no one would miss?"

Their eyes locked in the mirror and there was a glint of emotion in her eyes as she continued, "Well, you're wrong. Maybe he didn't live by the same moral code as a lot of people, but his life still meant something. He mattered, okay? He mattered to me and I'm not exaggerating in the least about this –he is his mother's world. She loves him so much and when he _never_ comes home, it will kill her. So maybe the life of someone like him doesn't matter to you –but he did to me."

Jim swallowed hard at seeing how much she meant every word of what she'd said, so much so that he wanted to turn back around and tell her he didn't kill him. Maybe in time she'd learn the truth, but it was too risky for anyone at all to know the whole story right now. Not only could the consequences be fatal for himself, but Bullock had pointed out that it wouldn't be outside the realm of reason for Barbara to be targeted too.

"I am sorry." He said sincerely, pausing for a moment before asking, "What happened to your face?"

"Pretty sure I got fired from my job." She stated, her eyes narrowing as she added, "Learning that my best friend had been killed sent me into a rage and Fish didn't appreciate it, to say the least."

"Maybe that's your cue to leave this part of your life behind." He said with a hopefulness in his voice for her. Plus, from what he'd learned in his few dealings with Fish Mooney, Bird was lucky to have made it out alive.

"And what? Move back into Wayne Manor? Maybe attend university in England or something? Stick to the straight and narrow." She scoffed, "I can't. The danger of this city courses through me like the blood in my veins. I can't just put on a pretty dress and pretend to be normal."

"Normal?"

"Mhm." She hummed with a nod, "Have you ever felt so out of place, like you don't belong? No matter how much you try…you just don't."

Silently he watched her in the mirror, and gave a small nod for an answer.

"Yeah, well… that's the way I felt my entire life. I had a good family and lots of so-called friends, but even being surrounded by them –I was still alone. Then I met Oswald and in a lot of ways he's like me and for the first time in my life I didn't feel alone anymore." She admitted, pinching the skin on the back of her hand as she spoke in an attempt to disconnect from the pain of losing him. The last thing she needed or wanted was to start crying again.

"I heard someone say once that one of the worst feelings in the world is to feel completely alone in a room full of people." She said so softly, he barely heard her as she breathed, "Personally, I can say there is a lot of truth to that saying."

The car fell into an uncomfortable silence of him struggling against the urge of admitting he hadn't really killed Oswald Cobblepot and Bird using every last bit of self-control she had to hold back the whirlwind of emotions inside of her.

A part of her was always teetering on the edge, barely feeling in control was something she was used too. Only this time it felt different, maybe over the past few days she'd mixed the wrong medications or her mental state was truly deteriorating in ways she hadn't felt before.

Either way –she didn't feel much like a person anymore. She felt like a storm pieced together with bones and covered in skin. It wouldn't take much for her to blow.

Blinking her eyes and trying to clear her vision, she looked up to see he was watching her in the rear-view mirror with a concerned and questioning expression on his face.

"What?" She asked, her voice coming out with a snakes-hiss.

"I'm just trying to figure something out."

A bitter tasting laugh slid between her dry, chapped lips when she questioned, "Let me guess… you wanna know how a Wayne fell so far?"

A single nod was the only answer she received. Normally, she scoffed at those questions –leaving the asker with more questions than they had to begin with. But it was cold outside that day and she was appreciating the warm flow of air from the heater vents inside the car, not to mention she was still sore from the beating she'd received from Fish's thug and the seat of the car was much more comfortable than out walking on the streets.

Deep down there might have even been a small part of her that was just yearning for some sort of human interaction after the alcohol and drug filled binge she'd been on while wallowing around in her emotions and self-pity.

Pulling in a deep breath, she slowly let it out; feeling her lungs deflate inside her chest.

"I ran away a lot as a teenager." She started to explain, "I don't really know why, I guess… there was just this feeling of complete freedom on the streets and I relished in it." With a small smile she remembered, "I even had this bag I kept hidden with clothes I'd picked up on the streets so I'd fit in better."

The smile faded and her eyes grew dark, "I was fifteen when I was attacked on the streets; raped and shot…left to die in a dark, cold alley."

Turning in his seat, he looked at her surprised not only to learn the news but also how she so bluntly stated it, it was clear she'd disconnected from what had happened to her in such a way that she could talk about it in the same tone of voice one might discuss the evening news.

"Obviously that changed me." She breathed, "But what really changed me was afterwards when I found out three other girls had been attacked before me, over the span of a couple months."

His eyebrows furrowed as Bird let out a painfully dry laugh and added, "We all sort of looked alike, so I guess the monster had a type."

"Starling –"

"The only difference between me and them was that they were street kids and I wasn't. The police did nothing to try and catch the guy when it was just girls living on the streets, then it happens to a Wayne and all of sudden everyone wants justice."

"I'm sorry." His voice was soft and his tone full of sincerity as he spoke with a new understanding of her. As much as he tried to not judge a book by it's cover, he'd started to form an opinion of her. That she had been simply acting out, rebelling even –just because she could. Only now pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place and he could understand how something that traumatic could change someone.

"Don't be, I mean at least I lived, right?" She countered, looking at him from under her hood, "That's what everyone said, how _lucky_ I was to be alive."

"Anyways…" She waved a hand in front of her in a dismissive way, "That was the day I realized that the only thing that mattered was my last name. It didn't matter that this freak was… brutalizing teenage girls, I didn't even matter –only the fact that someone would dare do that to one Gotham's one percent."

Looking down she absentmindedly twisted the fabric on the end of her jacket sleeves, letting the car fall back into a silence before sighing, "Like I said, it changed me. I guess the entire experience should have made me want to make a difference or something, turn me into a bleeding heart. But it didn't. I saw just how cold this world can be and it was then that I realized if I wanted to survive in a world that cold –I had to be even colder."

He pulled in a breath, feeling the heaviness of what she was saying weighing down on his chest as he said, "Everyone has to matter or no one matters."

With raised eyebrows she said, "Careful detective, you're starting to sound like a straight arrow again, like someone who didn't just execute somebody else on a Don's orders. Or are you trying to say Oswald just didn't matter?"

"No, I'm not saying that." He argued, a glint of anger back in his eyes. The burden of his secret, knowing that he'd let Oswald live was getting harder and harder to carry in ways he'd never expected.

"The truth is, I don't think I was normal before the attack. I've always thought differently than normal, I guess." He watched as she pulled her hood down and let her hair out of the clip she'd pinned it up with, rubbing her scalp she shrugging, "I told you that Oswald and I were alike in some ways; a lack of a moral compass for example."

Thinking about the hardships she'd faced in her own life and everything she'd learned about Oswald, she reasoned, "Maybe we both got dealt a worse deck than most and it twisted us up inside until something got broken. I don't know, maybe we were really born different… maybe we were born sick."

"Do you really believe that?" Jim asked her. With all the bad he'd seen in the world at times it had made him wonder if some people were just born bad; built differently than others. But when that excuse was so easily tossed out it took accountability away from someone for their actions.

She gave a small nod before questioning back, "Do you?"

A beat of silence passed as he gave both the question and his answer some thought, before trying to put his thoughts into words. "I think maybe we're all born with something light and something dark inside of us, maybe we're even predisposed to sway one way more than the other. But when you try and excuse the bad things you've done by claiming you were born that way…" With a small shrug he sighed, "We have to hold ourselves accountable for what we do –the good and the bad."

"Fair enough." She conceded, leaning forward in the seat and closer to where he was turned to face her as she asked, "So how should you be held accountable for killing Oswald?"

When he shot her a look that read ' _let it go'_ she raised her eyebrows as she said in an accusing voice, "You're welcome, by the way."

"For what?" He countered, thinking the last thing he owed her was a thank you. Not only was she digging around in things that could get him killed, she'd also almost caused him to wreck his car that morning.

"You're alive because of me, you know. Who do you think called Falcone to let him know that Fish was overstepping her boundaries and ordering the execution of a GCPD detective?"

When she saw the look on his face as her words fully sunk in, she nodded, "That's right. So then imagine how I felt once I learned you were the one who killed someone important to me afterwards."

Without giving him time to say anything, she opened the door and got out, pausing for only a moment to pull her hood back up before she disappeared into the bustling late morning sidewalk.

Jim watched in his mirrors until Bird was no longer visible amongst the other Gothamites on the busy sidewalk. He'd wondered who or what had clued Falcone in to what was happening when he'd showed up himself to stop both him and his partner Bullock from being finished off in that blood stained chop shop.

Seeing how upset and hurt she was over thinking Cobblepot was dead pulled at him on the inside, it was clear she'd been through more pain in her life than most. But he had no way of knowing what she'd do if armed with the information that he was still alive.

Starting the car, he blew out a heavy sigh and rested his head against the steering wheel with the realization that he had no clue what she might do with thinking she knew he'd killed Cobblepot. He already had two detectives from MCU keeping tabs on him over discovering Mario Pepper had been framed for the Wayne murders.

If Bird talked to the wrong people, he very well could go down for a murder he didn't commit or she might even end up getting them both killed.

 **~(A couple hours later)~**

Bird had been wandering the streets of Gotham rather aimlessly for the last few hours ever since she'd confronted Jim Gordon.

She'd been locked away inside of her head trying to plot her next move. As angry as she was about everything that had happened, she felt like she didn't have anywhere to go besides back to Fish. That nightclub had practically been a second home to her in many ways she could use the distraction of work to keep her on track and keep her from the self-destruction she'd slipped into since losing both her parents and best friend.

Reaching a street with various vendors set up, she slowly walked along from table to table seeing what all was offered. She'd just closed in on a fresh fruit stand when she heard a voice say her name.

"Starling?"

Her shoulders tensed as she remembered hearing that voice before, on the day she'd learned her father had left her an inheritance she'd never expected, the voice belonged to Harvey Dent.

Not turning around, she sat the bright green apple back down on the stand and tried to casually walk away, pretending she didn't hear him.

After all, the last time she'd seen him she was at least semi-holding her life together, and she wasn't coming off the end of drug and alcohol filled bender that had resulted in her losing days in her memory. To be honest, she didn't even know what day it was, she was just glad she remembered to shower that morning.

"Starling, hey."

She closed her eyes and let out a heavy sigh when she felt a gentle, but strong hand land on her shoulder and she knew he'd caught up with her.

"Harvey, hey…" She said managing her best to put on a smile as she slowly turned to face him, she did her best to keep her face shielded in the shadow of her dark hood. Never-mind the fact she was still healing from the beating she'd taken, she knew how bad she looked from everything that had happened and she was pretty sure if he saw how bad she truly looked that day he might ask for his card back that he'd given her his personal number on.

"Hey, I thought that was you." He smiled, as he asked, "Were you just trying to avoid me?"

"No." She lied, letting out a nervous laugh and looking around for an excuse as to why she had to go.

Not entirely sure he bought her answer, he observed how she seemed to be looking at anything but at him. Like the last thing on earth she had time to do was give him the time of day.

Harvey opened his mouth to apologize for bothering her and say that he had to get going, but before he could a car backfired from down the street and he heard Bird gasp as she raised her head and looked over that way to see what had happened.

When she did, the sunlight cast out the shadows on her face and he saw the bruises and cuts on her skin.

"Oh my god." He breathed, his eyebrows furrowing in anger as he asked, "Who did that to you?"

"It was my own fault." She quickly replied, lowering her head again and wishing she'd never stopped when he caught up with her.

He thought back to how adamant she was that he help her immediately set up a will leaving everything to her brother the day he'd met with her to go over what her father left her. He thought then from the way she was acting that she might have been worried about her life being in danger, now seeing that she'd clearly taken a beating he was thinking maybe she had reason to be worried –which worried him.

"Who hurt you?" He repeated, with gravel in his voice.

"What's it to you anyways?" She countered, crossing her arms over her chest and reverting back to her thirteen year old overly-stubborn self who used to counter every question she was asked with another question.

"Maybe I don't like seeing people get hurt who don't deserve it." He quickly answered.

"You're a good guy, I get it." She finally said, shaking her head as she spoke, "But you don't know anything about me."

Thinking back to how he'd told her he was one of the people who actually wanted to help clean up Gotham, to rid the city of all the criminals and corruptness, Bird said in a softer voice, "If you did know anything about me, you'd probably book it in the other direction."

"I highly doubt that." He answered honestly, and her mind raced back to him giving her his number and the more than obvious flirting that had been going on.

With raised eyebrows she questioned, "Wait… are you the one who sent me flowers?"

"No…" His head cocked slightly with his answer, thinking that was a rather odd thing to accuse him of.

"Uh-huh." She nodded, with her lips pressed together and slightly puffed out, before she said in an accusatory tone, "That's really weird, you know? We've spoken one time and you'd had have to get my address off of your end of the paperwork."

"And then!" She exclaimed pointing a finger at him, "You don't even send a card with the flowers, that's creepy."

"Okay, you can stop pointing at me like that." Harvey said, holding back a laugh as he reached forward and put his hand flat on top of hers to lower it, "I didn't send you any flowers. If I had; there would have been a card, because I would have wanted you to know they were from me."

Seeing the look on her face he realized, "You don't believe me."

"Well, you are a lawyer. Knowing that fact –one can never be sure how much said is actually true." She argued, gesturing with a hand as she added with a look of confidence and amusement, "How much of what you say is real?"

"Offensive." He stated, but the look on his face showed more of curiosity and amusement than if she'd really offended him, "I have no reason to lie to you. Could it be you're accusing me of something because you're trying to deflect my questions about who hurt you?"

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him, angered he saw right through what she was trying to do.

"It doesn't matter." Bird shrugged, the words artfully leaving her tongue as she repeated, "It's still creepy to send a girl card-less flowers when you shouldn't have their address in the first place."

He watched her as he held back a laugh at how convinced she was that he'd sent her flowers when he knew he hadn't. But the hilarity of the moment was still overshadowed by knowing that someone had hurt her and he still wanted to know what happened and who'd hurt her.

"I know that you don't really know me, but if you're in some kind of trouble. I can help you." He offered in such a sincere voice it caught her off guard.

Biting down on the inside of her cheek, she looked around and quickly located a narrow back alley just off to the side. Given the first chance of slipping away unnoticed, she was going to make a break for it. If she remembered correctly, it was the back entrance to an Italian restaurant owned by none other than Salvatore Maroni, but she was sure it would only take her a few minutes to get through the kitchen and out of the front door of the restaurant, then she'd be home free.

"I'm not _in_ any trouble." She assured, her eyes landing on where a trio of young boys bumped into an older man and clearly took his wallet, looking back to Harvey she caught him off gaurd as she added, "I _am_ trouble."

Before he could even begin to ask her what she talking about, a man yelled from down the alley that his wallet had been stolen and a small group of kids raced past him, nearly knocking him over. Once they were gone, Harvey turned back to where Bird had been standing only she wasn't there any longer. Spinning in a slow circle, he scanned the street for any sign of her –but she'd seemingly vanished on him, yet again.

 **~()~**

With a sigh, Bird leaned against the door to the restaurant when it shut behind her. It was clear that Harvey Dent wasn't one to let things go and for whatever reason was genuinely concerned about what had happened to her.

Looking up she saw a guy who'd been chopping up a roll of green onions look at her with a questioning look on his face, wondering who she was and why she was back there.

Doing her best to offer up a friendly smile, she walked off with the intent of getting out of Maroni's restaurant as quickly as possible. That was until something pulled her attention over to the large sink at the corner of the kitchen, just as the guy washing dishes looked over at her.

Coming to an abrupt stop, her jaw dropped as she stared back at someone she thought she'd never see again. Just as startled as she was, Oswald dropped the plate he'd been drying off back into the water causing it to splash over the sink and onto the floor in a puddle at his feet.

The pair stared at each other in a mutual surprise, before he saw her open her mouth to say something. Fearful she might reveal his real name, he rushed over to her as best he could with his still healing leg from the bad beating he'd taken from Fish Mooney the day she'd found out he'd snitched to the MCU.

With a hand on her upper arm, he pulled her into one of the supply rooms and pulled the door shut behind them with a silent hope that no one saw them.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded to know, as he turned to face her.

Backing away from him, she angrily pointed a finger at him as she exclaimed, "You! You're still alive?"

"Yes." He said with raised eyebrows, "And I might continue to be if you keep your voice down."

"Oh my god…" She breathed pinning her eyes shut and rubbing her temples as she realized that Jim Gordon must have found some way to spare him, and she'd handed his name over to the MCU.

"What are you doing here?" He repeated, his eyes widened as he stared at her.

Ignoring his question, she took a few more steps away from him with a look of hurt flashing over her face as she asked, "You're alive and you didn't even tell me? How could you do that to me… just let believe you were really dead?"

"At first it was too dangerous for you to know, if your reaction wasn't genuine Fish would have suspected something." Oswald explained, his arms and hands raised slightly in surrender as he hobbled closer to her with an admission, "When I returned to the Gotham, I tried calling you from a payphone. _You_ never answered."

Her eyes narrowed in anger at his tone and the way he'd voiced the sentence, as if it were her own fault she didn't know he was alive. "I haven't charged my phone in days –the only person who ever calls me is my brother."

He stepped closer, coming to a stop when she backed up and shook her head. He wasn't sure if she was putting distance between them because she was fighting the urge to hurt him or if she was just too hurt from everything that had happened –possibly even both.

When she stepped just under the light towards the back of the small space, he saw the look on her face was one more of pain than any other emotion. Anger he could handle, he was used to the wrath of her anger. But seeing her upset put a knot in his stomach, especially knowing he was the reason for the pain she'd been in.

There were very few people in the world who could cause an emotional response from him, his mother was one of course and then there was Bird. The person who was closest to him in the world, the street-smart teenager he'd met years back had grown into a savvy young woman and quickly became more than just a trusted ally over the last few years, she was a friend –a true friend.

"I'm sorry." His voice was soft as he spoke and the words hung in the air. He rarely apologized about anything, unless he'd messed up so bad that his life was on the line. Then he'd say anything it took to survive. But an honest apology from him was a rare occurrence and Bird knew this.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she stubbornly looked to the side and refused to look at him. Seeing that he really was apologetic made her want to tell him it was okay, but she was too mad to let him off the hook that easily.

His eyes were locked on her as he stepped closer, taking in her familiar features that seemed to somehow always invade his thoughts. She wasn't just a girl; not to him.  
He viewed her as more of a work of art than a person.

"Bird."

With a heavy sigh she turned her head to face him, seeing that he was now just in front of her.

"I'm still mad at you." She flatly stated.

Only he didn't hear what she'd said, all he could focus on was the cuts and bruises on her face. His eyes darted rapidly back and forth as he wondered how he didn't see the injuries sooner, looking down he realized how she was standing leaning forward slightly and over to one side –he could only guess there were worse bruises her clothes were hiding.

Reaching up, his fingertips just barely grazed over her skin near a dark bruise on her cheek, and for a brief second he could have sworn he felt her lean into his touch, before he quickly pulled his hand back. "Who did this to you?"

Bird's eyes met his, but it was like he was no longer in the room with her. He was outraged that someone –anyone would dare hurt her, hurt _his_ Bird.

Still upset with him, Bird pointed to her face as she asked, "This?" Scoffing she accused, "This is your fault. You let me believe you were dead and I lashed out at Fish, which clearly she wasn't happy about."

"I tried to reach you!" He exclaimed, louder than he mean to. Pulling his eyes away from her face, he sucked in a shallow breath in an attempt to get a grip on his anger before adding, "I had one-hundred dollars. That was it, all I had to live off of. When it was clear you weren't going to answer your phone, I tried to let you know I was still alive in another manner. Did you not get the flowers?"

"That was you?" She gasped, not able to hid her surprise, "Why didn't you send a card then?"

"And have someone in passing know they were from me? Proof that I was still alive written down on paper for anyone to see?"

Her confusion grew as she asked, "Oswald, how did you expect me to know that they were from you if there was no card?"

A blank look fell over his face briefly, and she witnessed his right eye lid twitch for a moment before he asked, "Was it not obvious?"

He'd picked everything from the arrangement out from his knowledge of her, knowing she'd love everything about it. Most importantly and including the glass beads that came with it, he'd seen her taking those out of several arrangements that Fish had received at the club.

She raised her eyebrows in question, and his raised in response as he wondered who else she could have thought was sending her flowers. Especially ones so well suited to her liking. He paid attention to her, he knew her and he thought it would have been easy enough for her to put two-and-two together. No one could have possibly arranged something so perfect for her, not to mention he'd spent close to the last of his money on them in an attempt to let her know he was alright.

Hearing a noise outside of the room, they both looked over to the door expecting someone to walk inside. When no one did he held up a hand for her to be silent, before going over to the door to see who was out there.

Bird's eyebrows lowered as she saw the hard time he was having just trying to walk. He'd always walked a little differently, but now it was possibly the most obvious thing about him. The problem seemed to be with his knee, and his foot pointed out to the side instead of forward like it should have.

After making sure no one was right outside eavesdropping, Oswald pulled the door shut and turned around nearly jumping when he realized she was right behind him now. It was unsettling how quiet she could be.

He shot her a warning look, letting her know he didn't appreciate her sneaking up behind him.

"Does it still hurt?" She questioned, nodding to his leg and making him shift uncomfortably on the hard tile floor beneath them. Being called Penguin was bad enough before, but now with the injury he'd sustained and it not healing up right from everything he'd been through he was well aware how bad his limp was.

"Not as much as before." He simply answered, before blowing out a breath and pointing out, "You shouldn't be here."

"Neither should you!"

As always she was quick to anger, though normally she didn't have such a short fuse with him.

"Why are you working at one of Maroni's places?" She demanded to know.

Matching her level of anger and irritation, he responded, "Did you not hear how I had little money and spent most of it trying to get a message to you?"

With an unamused look, she cocked her head to the side and looked at him with an expression demanding the real answer. She knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't make such a brazen move, such as going to work for Maroni, without ulterior motives behind it.

"I can't talk about this now. Not here." He said, his voice lowering as he said, "My shift is over at ten tonight."

"Okay." She nodded, understanding he wasn't withholding information from her; she'd be let in on the plan, just not this exact minute in time.

"Do you have money for food?" Bird questioned, her lips pursed into a thin line as she waited on his answer.

"Not much." He admitted, quickly adding in that he'd get his first official paycheck that Friday and withholding how the money he did have was tips off the tables he'd swiped without anyone noticing.

Taking her purse off her shoulder, she took out all of the cash she had and pushed it into his hand.

"This really isn't necessary." He politely declined, knowing the protest would be useless. She wouldn't take it back and in all honesty he needed every penny he could get his hands on.

A fact that became embarrassingly clear when she started picking the loose change out of the bottom of her purse and dropping it into his open hand.

The only clothes he had in his possession now was the two sets of work uniforms he'd been given his first day and the clothes he'd taken off the two guys who'd picked him up when he'd been hitchhiking; both of which were now dead by his hand. He couldn't ever remember a time where he was worse off in his entire life.

After getting the money squared away in a pocket of his white apron, he looked up to see her still rummaging through her purse. Holding up a hand he said, "What you've given me will more than suffice. I don't plan to be living in these conditions for long."

"I wasn't looking for money." Bird stated as she displayed a half full bottle of white oblong shaped pills, shaking the bottle she announced, "For your leg."

As Oswald took the bottle and started to read the label, Bird said, "Vicodin."

He tucked the bottle away in his pocket with the money, but she didn't miss the look he gave her from under his eyebrows. He might have considered Bird to be more a piece of artwork than a person, but he also knew she had her faults and flaws. Raised with a silver spoon or not, she'd seen the cruelness of the world intimately –in ways that no one ever should.  
Still, he'd take her faults over anyone else's perfections.

"I'll see you tonight." She said, as she stepped past him and reached for the handle to the door, knowing they'd spent long enough in there.

Looking down he adjusted his apron and made sure neither the pills or money was visible from the pocket he'd stored them in. Realizing he didn't hear the door open, he raised his head to see what was going on.

Just as he did, she took him by surprise as she moved closer and wrapped her arms around him in a hug so tight it hurt his still healing body, but he didn't mind the pain.

At first his body tensed and stiffened from both the surprise and the feel of her body pressed tightly against his, but after a few moments he relaxed into the embrace and wrapped his arms around her.

He closed his eyes and locked the feeling of how it felt to have her in his arms to memory. The warmth he felt in those moments with her was everything, knowing that he wasn't alone and though he may have fell farther than he imagined –he hadn't lost her.

It was such a contrast to how he'd felt since the day he'd almost been killed. Everything had happened so fast after Fish found out he'd snitched that it made his head spin, and other than the favor Falcone had granted him by agreeing to have Jim Gordon be the one ordered to kill him and Jim letting him live –the world had felt just as ice cold as the Gotham River he'd been pushed into off the pier.

He'd spent what felt like an eternity walking on the side of the hi-way with his leg hurting so bad he could hardly stand it and was passed by hundreds of people until finally two younger guys had picked him up, but it was clear right away that it was less than good fortune when they both clearly enjoyed watching him struggle through the embarrassment of trying to get into the car when they kept driving off. Then one of them had even had the gall to tell him the way he walked made him look like a penguin.

He'd barely even gotten off the bus in Gotham when someone recognized him and tried to drag him back to Fish Mooney where he'd be sure to meet a terrible fate.

Of course, they'd all paid for what they'd done against him; paid with their lives, but all the coldness and cruelty he'd faced was now almost entirely erased from his encounter with Bird. He now wasn't worried about where his next meal was coming from and he even had enough money to buy a few more nights at the little hole in the wall motel he'd managed to get a room at, not to mention he finally had something to help the pain he was in from his still healing, badly injured leg. But perhaps what dulled the pain most of all from the unexpected hug she'd sprung on him.

His fingers slightly dug into her sides through her clothing in response to the jasmine and light citrus notes from her perfume filling his nose. It was a scent he always remembered, always came to mind whenever he thought about her –but to smell it _on_ her was an entirely different experience. Before he was even entirely sure of what he was doing, his face was buried in the crook of her neck –breathing in her scent deeply through her thick waves of hair.

Raising his head up slightly , Oswald said, "Thank you." Though the words didn't seem quite enough for how truly thankful he was. She'd reminded him that the sun shined on even the cloudiest, rainiest days –something he at times struggled to remember. He felt her nod, and her arms tightened around him once more before she pulled out of his arms and left him alone in the room.

A couple minutes later, he emerged and looked around wondering if he might catch another glimpse of her in the restaurant, but she was already gone and the after lunch lull had left the seating area vacant, with most of the staff outside on smoke breaks.

Leaning his back against one of the metal counters, he did another quick check of his surroundings before taking the money she'd given him out of his pocket to see just how much was there. While trying to straighten out the bills, a card fell from the crumpled mess onto the floor.

Leaning down he picked the card up, running his thumbs over the thick card with a glossy finish over the black text printed on it: _Harvey Dent, Assistant District Attorney_

His eyebrows lowered as he read over the contact information a few times, wondering why Bird was carrying around a business card for one of Gotham's ADA's, he started to tuck it back into his pocket to return to her –until he noticed something on the back.

Raising it up to get a better look, he saw it was a hand written number –he could only guess a personal number. His curiosity turned to irate annoyance, he had no idea who this Harvey Dent was –but he didn't need to know him to know that no matter who he was, he wasn't good enough for Bird. Not for _his_ Bird.

 _ **His Bird.**_

Did this Harvey Dent know her as well as he did? No, it would be impossible, he knew her better than anyone.

He probably wouldn't treat her like she deserved to be treated –like nothing short of a queen.

There was a pounding in his head, thudding painfully hard against his temples as the numbers on the card blurred from now hazy eyesight. He didn't need to meet him to know he'd be all wrong for her, he could feel it in his bones.

Slamming the card down onto a cutting board on the counter behind him, he grabbed the nearest knife and stabbed the blade straight through the card so hard the knife stayed upright lodged in the board beneath it.

"You alright?" Caught off guard, he jumped slightly as he looked over his shoulder to see one of the cooks looking at him with a confused and nearly frightened look on his face.

Letting out a small, nervous laugh –it took him a few moments of struggling with the knife before he pulled it from the cutting board and laid it down with a clank on the counter. Without another look at the cook, he picked the card up and walked back over to his station at the sink, where he shredded the card into the tiniest possible pieces before using the scalding hot water in the sprayer to disintegrate what was left of the card until it all disappeared down the drain.

* * *

 **A/N** **\- Thank you so much for reading the chapter! I really hope you guys liked it.  
Oswald was not happy about finding Harvey's card, huh? lol**

 **As always look for me on Tumblr (sagelondyn) I've got several edits posted for this story.**

 **Thanks to Erudessa-gabrielle, DancingDorisDay, Katniss789 and guest for being kind enough to review the last chapter. I appreciate it more than you know! And a very special thank you and shout-out to Miss E Charlotte for not only reviewing, but for supporting me and this story from the very beginning!**

 **xx**

 **It would really mean a lot if you could take a few moments to leave a review and let me know you're reading and (hopefully) enjoying the story. ^_^**


	4. Changing Tides

**IV**

" _My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together." –Desmond Tutu_

* * *

After saying goodbye to the other worker who'd been tasked with staying until close that night, Oswald walked out of the back exit with the two bags of trash to throw in the dumpster. After a slight struggle with getting the rain slicked lid flipped backwards he threw the bags in and walked around to the back of it to throw the lid shut.

He'd barely taken a few steps away when he heard a thud behind him, spinning around he saw Bird crouched down on top of the dumpster. His eyes drifted up trying to see where she'd jumped from –her ability to do so had never ceased to amaze him.

"You went from holding an umbrella to taking the trash out?" She asked, with a small smirk. Her glossed lips were just visible from under the shadow her dark hood had cast over her face from the streetlight, "How the mighty have fallen."

His head dropped to the side as he stared at her with an unamused expression, irritation laced his words as he sighed, "A temporary but necessary fall, I assure you. I have a plan in place." Looking back down to the lid she'd landed on, he added, "And I should have left the top open."

"Can't wait to hear it." She said, as she jumped of the dumpster and ignored the snarky remark he'd made about leaving it open so she'd have landed in the dumpster when she jumped.

"I'm parked over here." Bird called over her shoulder as she started towards the end of the alley, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he followed her. He knew her preferred method of getting around town wasn't by car –she preferred to get around Gotham by foot; normally leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Something that wasn't plausible for him before, let alone after the severe leg injury he'd sustained.

Once they were in the car and she'd turned the heat on, he aimed the passenger side vent at him, appreciating the warm air on such a cold night. He'd been having to walk or take the bus to and from his new job and it was a welcomed relief to be in a car, especially with her.

"Where to?" She questioned, watching out of her window as a car drove past them on the road.

The only answer she got was silence as he thought the question over in his head. The only place he really had to go was back to the small hotel he'd been paying cash for by the night, and the heat didn't work in his room.

"Hungry?"

Looking over at her he gave a small, almost weak nod, before sliding down in the seat some and crossing his arms over his chest as he stared out of the window. She watched him as he pulled the white work hat he'd been forced to wear off and crumpled it in his hand in a childlike manner.

Silently, she pulled her car out onto the street and drove off knowing just the place to go. A small all night diner she'd watched the sunrise from many nights growing up.

It was a long drive there, but neither of them seemed to mind as they rode together in complete, but comfortable silence.

Every so often she'd look over at him, hardly able to believe he was really alive and beside her after so long of thinking she'd never see him again. While he remained locked inside of his head, sorting out his thoughts and absorbed in his ever growing plan to get to the top of his game in Gotham; he'd suffered some mishaps and acted too quickly without thinking the plan through before and he'd nearly met his fate. It was a mistake he didn't intend on making again.

No, from now on his every thought, every little move had to be perfect –leaving no room for error.

"Hey, we're here." Bird said as she reached over and gently shook his shoulder.

Blinking a few times to clear his eyes that had been dried from the heater, he looked at the small diner before turning to face her with raised eyebrows.

"Don't judge." She scolded, "I've never seen any of Fish's people here and it's quiet, we can talk."

He had to admit it certainly wouldn't make his top ten list of places to eat, but there was a certain appeal about the building –if nothing else it was on the outskirts of Gotham and not a usual haunt for anyone he knew of.

Not to mention the delicious scent of food that lingered in the air as soon as he stepped out of the car which stirred up the gnawing hunger pains in his empty stomach. Normally he'd snag something to eat from the restaurant he worked at or a nearby food truck on his break, but that day his stomach had been knotted in a sick feeling after finding the business card in the money Bird had given him.

Once they were seated and ordered their food, Bird demanded he tell her everything that had happened from the day Fish Mooney had found out he'd snitched; the day that had changed everything.

After a check of their surroundings, he began to fill her in on how he'd made a deal with Falcone –that in exchange for a secret he'd task Jim Gordon with killing him. He'd thought from the day he'd met the GCPD's newest detective outside of Fish's club that he had a conscience, that he was a good man. A fact that was verified for him when he did indeed, spare his life.

Oswald told her of how he thought Jim could be trusted, that he might be a real friend. A fact which Bird quickly disputed –she didn't trust easily.

Upon hearing the rest of what had happened and how his working for Maroni was really a cover to gain information for Don Falcone, Bird's eyebrows lowered in confusion, "But you're a dishwasher… that doesn't exactly give you inside information from Maroni."

Blowing out a breath, he conceded, "Clearly, this part of the plan is still a work in progress."

He knew it would take some time, but hopefully sooner rather than later –he'd become a trusted member of the Maroni Crime Family and privy to secrets that could keep buying him further into Falcone's trusted circle.

"Okay…" She breathed, swirling her last French fry through the ketchup on her plate before admitting, "It's a good enough plan. Playing them off each other, weakening them both while also getting them both to trust you. Question though: what are you going to do if it all blows up in your face?"

"It won't." He confidently replied, lowering his head and looking at her from under his eyebrows with a reminder, "Come now, Bird. You know better than to underestimate me."

"True." She nodded, pointing her fork at him, "But I've also spent the last several days believing you were dead, because of a plan you also thought would work out."

His eyes narrowed at her incessant need to bring up his recent failures, he didn't need the reminder that he'd let arrogance get the better of him. She knew how smart he was, clever enough to rise to the top and eventually stake his claim as the King of Gotham –but he'd been foolish to get ahead of himself. No way was it possible for him to be able to control every little aspect in the war for power, which meant there were no guarantees.

"The climb to the top is a treacherous one. Full of mishaps and factors out of my control." He stated, his hand clenched down at his side in anger.

"And the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Bird countered with a shrug, as she picked up her glass to take a drink and missed the look on his face.

He couldn't remember there being a time when she seemed to go against everything he said and thought.

"Are you mocking me?" He questioned, his voice quiet with gravel in his tone as he spoke.

"No." She answered honestly, setting her glass down with a clank against the tabletop, "I just think you're going to get us both killed."

"You've been saying that for close to a year now. Yet, here we are –alive and well."

"You're desolate with a busted leg!" She exclaimed, before motioning to herself, "I got the crap kicked out of me."

"Tomorrow is a new day." He spoke, with his voice slightly cracking from the conviction in his tone, "They tried to kill me, cruelly and heartlessly tried to eliminate me and here I am. I persevered and am now closer than ever to the top; earning the trust of Don Falcone, himself."

"When disassembling any structure from the inside out, you run the risk of the entire thing collapsing in on you." Bird argued and Oswald wasn't sure if she was arguing with him for arguments sake or if she no longer believed in him.

Either way, he'd tired of the back and forth with the one person who knew the ins and outs of his plan from the beginning, the one person he could be entirely honest with and now it appeared she no longer believed in his cause.

He'd almost lost his life and now it seemed like he'd lost her too.

Without another word to her, he abruptly stood up and hobbled out of the restaurant. Shaking her head, she pulled her bowl of soup closer to her and grabbed her spoon to eat it with. She had no doubt that when she finished eating and went outside, she'd find him sitting in the car –arms crossed over his chest, pouting like a child.

It was several minutes later that she'd paid for both of their meals and headed outside, only she didn't see him at the car like she'd expected. Her eyes darted towards the road, he didn't seem mad enough at her that he'd attempt to walk back to wherever he was staying and even if he did –with his limp he couldn't have made it far.

" _No, no! Please, Fish will kill me!"_

Bird's ears picked up on the faint sound of her best friend's distressed voice and quickly sourced it to coming from the alley behind the small diner.

" _Shut up!"_

She heard an unfamiliar voice say just as she rounded the corner and witnessed a much taller and larger man than Oswald deliver a blow of his fist to the smaller man's face.

Anger flashed in her eyes and she darted forward, barely making a sound as she snuck up behind the stranger who she could only guess was planning on taking Oswald to Fish knowing that the rewards of being the one to turn him in would be expansive.

With a hard kick to the back of his knee, she brought the man with down a yell of pain. Now free of the iron strong grip the guy had had on him, Oswald scurried back away from him on the pavement watching as Bird efficiently knocked him out with a hard strike from her elbow to the side of his head.

Any anger he'd been holding at her for arguing against every point he'd made inside of the diner was gone now as she'd just saved his life.

Now becoming aware of the terrible pain on the side of his face, his hand landed over his cheek with a stunned look spreading over his eyes at just how hard he'd been hit.

Oswald looked up to Bird, who gave him a questioning look and he nodded in response to let her know he was okay.

With a small struggle, he managed to pull himself to his feet. He was starting to feel like it wasn't safe to step one foot outside of Maroni's restaurant. None of Fish's people would ever go in there, except Bird apparently –he still wasn't sure what she'd been doing there.

This was the second occurrence in his short time back in Gotham that someone tried to drag him back to his former boss who'd surely kill him herself this time. Both times he'd managed to survive –the first had been on his own accord and now she'd saved him. More welcome proof that he was truly back in the city of opportunities and he was no longer alone.

"Well…" Bird breathed as she pulled a switchblade knife from her pocket and released the blade, "Can't leave him alive, the first thing he'll do is spread the world that you're not dead."

Excitement flooded over him as the gleam of the streetlight illuminated on the sharp blade in Bird's hand and she stepped closer to the still unconscious man in a predatory manner.

"Yes… my thoughts exactly." He agreed, running his tongue over his lips as he also moved closer to where she was closing in on the man.

The throbbing pain on the side of his face was enough to make him want to kill the man himself, but the only thing more electrifying than taking a life himself, was to watch her doing so.

There was a feeling of excitement rising in his stomach, one that had him feeling almost giddy as his blue eyes watched her intently.

Just as Bird started to kneel down, Oswald grabbed her arm that had the knife and pulled it behind her back. Confused, she started to pull away but stopped when she heard him clear his throat and say, "Good evening, madam."

Realizing he'd pulled her arm behind her to hide the view of the knife from a waitress who'd stumbled upon them, Bird gave her best friendly smile to the woman and reached back with her other hand to close the knife before discreetly sliding it into her pocket.

Silently the woman looked between them with a growing anxious feeling when the hairs started to prickle on the back of her neck.

"W-what's going on?" she stammered, her eyes falling to the man lying motionless on the ground.

"Everything is quite alright, no need to worry." Oswald said, waving a dismissive hand through the air, "Our friend here seems to have had a bit too much to drink."

"We should get him home before it gets any later, let him sleep this off." Bird nodded in agreement.

The waitress nodded and struggled to find a smile of her own to match theirs as they continued to stare at her, both of their smiles seeming anything but friendly.

In fact, she never knew a smile could be threatening until she crossed paths with the pair. Suddenly, stepping outside for a cigarette on her break seemed like the worst idea she'd ever had.

"Oh." She nervously laughed, slowly stepping backwards away from them, "Yeah, it's gotten pretty late."

Her eyes rapidly went back and forth between Oswald and Bird as she continued to slowly back away from them, "You guys be safe out there…"

"Thank you." Oswald politely replied and Bird called out, "You too."

Once she was out of sight and to the best of their knowledge, back inside of the diner. Oswald let out a sigh as he leaned his back flat against the exterior brick wall of the building and looked up at the starless sky.

Sharing in his annoyance at the turn the night had taken and the inconvenience the waitress had caused them, Bird sighed, "Come on, let's get him to my car. I've got rope we can tie him up with for now."

What had started as a simple case of eliminating a problem was now going to be a struggle of getting a guy who was probably bigger than the both of them put together into her car and tied up until the figured out a place to take him and kill him.

After much effort from them both, they managed to get the man into a standing position and working as a team got him around to the front of the small roadside diner and into the backseat of her car.

Pushing his body over in the seat, Oswald got in beside him and Bird ran around to the front of the car so she could quickly drive them away from there. Starting the car, her eyes met his in the rearview mirror and she wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand as she said in an airy tone, "There's rope under the passenger seat."

Oswald leaned forward and reached down until his hand landed on a coiled up rope, after which he quickly got to work on tying the man up before he could start to stir.

 **~(Hours later)~**

Walking into her apartment, Bird reached for the light switch on the wall and flipped it on before stepping to the side to let Oswald in behind her.

"Relax." She insisted, "No one ever comes here."

"Forgive me for being on edge." Oswald sarcastically replied, "It was only hours ago that someone tried to drag me back to Fish Mooney, or did you forget that?"

"How could I forget?" She walked over and lingered in her bedroom doorway, before looking over her shoulder with a smirk, "I painted the hotel bathroom red with his blood."

Her words hung in the air long after the door had shut behind her and he could hear the shower from her bathroom running.

Exhausted he collapsed onto her couch and leaned his head back against it. He felt like staying at her place was just as risky as going home to his mother's apartment –but he had no other choice.

After leaving the diner, they'd gone back to the hotel he'd been staying at to figure out their next move. Which he'd assumed would be killing the guy in a non-bloody way to cut down on the mess and dumping his body somewhere. However; once the man had come to, Bird apparently had other plans and attacked him –leaving the body a bloody mess on the bathroom floor of his room and the walls sprayed and misted in crimson.

Even with the risk staying at her place posed, he had to admit the burning fire place in her small living room offered him some much needed warmth on the cold night. The heat didn't work in his room at the hotel and it also couldn't be denied that even her couch was more comfortable than the rock hard bed he'd been sleeping on.

Plus, with any luck he wouldn't be there long. Once he was close to securing a higher position of trust with Don Maroni, he could let his real identity be known and then there would be no more hiding. He could finally go home.

His eyes drifted over to her closed bedroom door and a small smile spread over his lips, even if he couldn't go home, staying there with Bird definitely wasn't the worst option out there. It seemed like no matter how much time they spent together, it just never felt like enough to him.

Shaking his head in an attempt to both focus and chase the ever-present thoughts of her away, he sat up and grabbed his bag that he'd dropped on the floor.

One bag, a bag that didn't even belong to him; filled with stolen clothes from his victims, hotel toiletries and food from a vending machine was what his life had been reduced to. Sure, it made it easy to pack up and go when they fled the hotel, but he longed for parts of his old life back. Being able to come and go as he pleased without worrying about being spotted, he missed his mother and knew she was probably beside herself with worrying about him. Well, worried and probably angry too, for some reason whenever he didn't make it back home she always thought he'd ran off with a woman. A fact that always slightly baffled him, considering he didn't even date.

The woman he spent the most time around was Bird, and there'd be no need for them to run off. His mother actually liked her and on several occasions had made mention to him that she didn't understand why they were just friends and had even went so far as tell Bird that she'd never find a man as elegant and handsome as her Oswald.

His eyes closed and internally he cringed as he thought of day they'd been having tea with his mother and Bird; for some reason, completely unbeknownst to him, Gertrude thought it would be acceptable to announce that she thought they would make beautiful grandchildren for her one day. He'd gotten choked on his drink of tea so badly he thought he'd never be able to catch his breath again –causing his mother to make a fuss and pet on him for the rest of the afternoon, while Bird remained unusually quiet and wouldn't make eye contact with him.

"Give me a minute to change for the night and then the shower is all yours."

Shaken from his thoughts, his breath caught in his throat causing him to make a strange, slightly strained sounding noise as he looked up and saw she wasn't only now in the same room with him –she was wrapped in just a bath towel.

"You okay?" She asked, in response to the odd sound he'd made.

"Fine." He stammered, clearing his throat and pulling his eyes away from her he repeated with more conviction, "I'm fine."

"Did you hear me about the shower?" She asked, her head cocking to the side when he stared straight in front of him and wouldn't look back at her.

"Yes." He curtly answered, adjusting some on the couch and refusing to look back at her though he didn't need to; the image of her wrapped in a towel with beads of water running down her bare shoulders and exposed skin on her chest just above where the top of the towel came was now locked into memory.

From the corner of his eye he saw her toss an armful of dark fabric into the flames of the fire place, he assumed must have been her bloodied clothes from earlier that night.

Maybe on another night he'd pointed out that if she'd been smart about the events that had taken place earlier there wouldn't have been a need to burn her clothes, but not tonight. Tonight he remained both silenced and mesmerized from the way the soft blue towel hugged her body and left a dangerous length of her legs exposed to his wandering eyes.

Bird crossed the room, between where he sat and her glass top coffee table, the bare skin of her leg brushed lightly against the fabric of his pants and caused his entire body to tense up and his hands to ball into white-knuckled fists at his sides.

Suddenly he became aware of the thudding of his heart, the way it increased much like when he'd slip into a rage –only this was different. It wasn't anger that had his blood rushing, it was something else entirely. It was the way the worn fabric of the towel allowed it to so perfectly cling to her curves and the knowledge that –that towel was the single barrier between his increasingly hungry eyes and her nude body.

After getting something from the small storage closet in the living room, she crossed back in front of him and disappeared back into her bedroom.

It was then that the anger bubbled up inside of him. He had tried many times to not have those thoughts about her, after all she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid his eyes upon and his unusual appearance had earned him the cruel nickname of penguin. How could she ever be attracted to him in the same way he'd started to view her?

Though, he didn't feel like the fault was his alone. How could she not know what she did to him? And then to be strutting around in front of him in just a towel alone. Is that why she insisted he come stay with her, so that she could tease and watch him squirm?

Rubbing his hands over his face, he looked back to the closed bedroom door and blew out a heavy breath. No, she hadn't. She'd invited him to stay with her because they were the best of friends and it was her apartment –meaning she could walk around wearing whatever she pleased. And it seemed liked she wasn't aware of how he felt, so how could she have known she was teasing him.

It wasn't like he'd ever tried to make it known how he now felt about her, he didn't see a point to it. Not only was she beautiful, out of his league on every level –he basically had no experience in that department and would likely end up making a fool of himself.

Just like he had the one and only time he'd attempted to move past a friendship with her. It was barely a year ago, they'd been out to eat for lunch seated right next to each other facing out of a window and he'd spent the whole time being distracted by the way the sunlight reflected on her glossed lips until soon all the could think about was how her mouth would feel pressed against his own, and how her soft hair would feel between his fingers.

His mind had been utterly consumed with her. The scent of her perfume, the silkiness of her fair skin and how sweet her mouth must taste with the strawberry iced tea she'd been sipping on. Before he was entirely sure of what he was doing, he'd leaned in intending to plant a kiss on her unsuspecting lips when she turned to face him only at the last second he'd changed his mind and panicked when she started to look his way. The entire situation had turned into a disaster, that left him stammering for words and excuses when she angrily demanded to know why the hell he head-butted her.

Never again, he swore to himself that day after apologizing profusely for the accidental head-butting, never again.

 **~()~**

Oswald looked over to the large windows of Bird's living room and thought to himself that there couldn't be many hours left before the sun would come up. Even though he had the day off work, he was still tired from the trying events of the night before.

He wasn't sure how long ago it was that Bird had reappeared from her bedroom, dressed in black pajama pants and a light gray shirt to announce that she was going to bed and remind him that he could shower if he wanted too.

Which he'd planned to do, but as he was gathering a set of clothes from the bag he'd found all of the clippings he'd been holding onto since finding a small trailer for rent outside of Gotham City. In a cabinet of the trailer he'd found several newspapers and some maps of Gotham.

In the trailer he'd taped everything up to the ceiling, so he could look at it while he plotted his revenge on Fish and his plan to take over the city. After getting the tape from the utility drawer in Bird's kitchen, Oswald had taken the contents off her coffee table and recreated his collage on the glass surface, adding in the maps he'd color coated for Falcone and Maroni's different territories of the city.

Seeing it all laid out in front of him helped put everything into perspective, he could line up the events that had already taken place and see everything that still needed to be accomplished. To anyone else it might have looked like the creation of a madman.

After taking a shower, he moved as quietly as possible through her bedroom on his way back to the living room where he'd already made the couch up with a blanket and pillow from the linen closet.

Just as he reached the doorway to the living room, he heard her make a noise in her sleep.

Turning around he watched the blanket move from her kicking her feet in her sleep, possibly trying to run away from something in her head.

He might have made a madman's collage on her coffee table, but her bedroom had a touch of madness all its own. Atop her dresser sat a few different shaped large decorative fish bowls she'd filled with various stolen items ranging from expensive jewelry to cheap glass marbles with tangled strands of painted color inside of them. At first he'd thought she just liked to steal expensive and shiny items, but after a while he'd realized she'd take anything reflective and shiny that she could get her hands on –no matter if the item held a monetary value.

It seemed more like a compulsion than a habit, much like the way she obsessively stock piled food in her kitchen and had all of her perfume and lotion bottles lined up perfectly straight in rows of three.

Keeping an eye on her as she continued to grow more restless in her sleep, he walked over to her dresser where he picked up the perfume she always wore and brought the bottle to his nose. Breathing in a small smile spread over his lips. The jasmine and light citrus notes were absolutely lovely, but he was now sure his favorite scent on earth was the way the perfume changed with the chemistry of her skin.

Gently placing the bottle back in its spot, he started for the door again but just as he reached it he heard her gasp loudly and he turned around to see her sitting straight up in the bed, strands of her hair stuck to her sweaty face as she kicked all of the blankets off of her and fought for her breath.

In silence the pair stared at each other, his brows furrowed as he saw a few stray tears fall down her flushed cheeks and she still seemed to be trying to get a foothold in the waking world.

"Sorry." She slightly stuttered as she spoke, raising a hand to wipe her cheeks she repeated, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" He asked quietly, not understanding what she kept apologizing for.

"Waking you up?" She replied with a slight shrug of the shoulders, before reaching up and wiping her tears again only this time she left red marks on her cheeks from the force at which she tried to rid her skin of the salty tears.

"You didn't." He assured her, shifting slightly in his stance to try and alleviate some of the pressure on his bad leg.

It wasn't her crying that made him feel uncomfortable, it was how uncomfortable she seemed with him witnessing her in that state.

Nodding with a haunted look in her eyes, she mumbled something under her breath he couldn't quite make out but sounded like another apology before she laid back down and turned on her side, keeping the blankets pushed back away from her.

His eyes scanned the room as he waited for her to say something else, maybe ask him to bring her something to drink or tell him to leave her alone –possibly even tell him what had caused such a reaction from her.

All of his internal questions were met by nothing but silence from inside her apartment and the distant sound of police sirens echoing from somewhere within the city.

"Should I get you a glass of water?" He finally asked, taking a few slow hobbling steps back into the room.

The way she was curled up made it seem like she was in pain, it reminded him of a wounded animal.

"No." She declined, with a small smile at the offer. He turned to leave, but stopped when she asked in a weakened voice, "Maybe you could open a window? It's really warm in here."

"Of course." The words came out without much thought as he crossed the room to open up one of the windows for her. In those moments, seeing her so distressed he'd have done anything he could to silence the demons in her head that so clearly wouldn't let her rest.

Turning back to the bed, where she lay with her back facing him.

"I could stay." He offered in a rushed voice as if he were just trying to get to the part where he thought she'd inevitably tell him to just go back to the couch, "Just sit with you for a while, I don't mind."

Raising her head, she looked over her shoulder at him and realized for the first time that he was wearing a short sleeved, yellow polo shirt with khaki pants and white socks. Clothes he must have taken off someone he'd killed along the way, she thought to herself. It was a far cry from the suits he always wore and it was just as strange as seeing him in an all-white kitchen uniform.

Trying to hide her smile, she faced away from him again with the realization that this was his attempt at trying to comfort her; to take care of her. It was clear he seemed to feel out of place asking her that, it was no surprise. His mother had taken care of him his whole life, always fussing over and tending to him. It must have felt strange being the one to try and tend to someone else.

He was just about to give up and accept her silence as a no, when she cleared her throat and said, "I guess penguins really are as cuddly as they look."

She couldn't see him, but could feel his narrowed eyes burning a hole through the back of her head and she held back a laugh. Not many people could get by with calling him penguin, especially when that person had their back turned to him. She was perhaps the only one who could do so and she knew it.

He would never admit it out loud, but hearing the nickname from her didn't bother him the way it would if anyone else said it. Generally, he felt people called him penguin to both dehumanize and alienate him. Yet, the few and far between times she'd ever used the name with him in their years of friendship, it sounded as more a term of endearment.

Slowly getting into the bed beside her, he sat up leaned against the headboard and looked down to where she remained curled up still trying to get back to sleep.

Her bed was comfortable, he'd dare even say more so than his own. A fact he'd already known, Oswald had laid in her bed several times before –but this was the first time he'd been in the bed with her in it. All the others were times he'd broken into her apartment for various reasons and ended up laying down on her bed to see what it felt like, to let his mind drift to other universes where he might even venture to imagine she was there beside him.

Looking back over to the now open window in her bedroom, the draft of cold air carried with it the scent Bird's vanilla sugar scented candles that lined the interior windows ledge. Closing his eyes he pulled in a deep breath and tried to clear his mind, but the image of her tear stained face was still haunting him. He wondered how many nights she woke up from nightmares that left her distraught in her apartment completely alone.

In the entirety of their friendship, he'd only seen her cry a few times. The first time was when she showed up at his door with tears streaming down her face and bloodstained clothes –it was the first time she'd killed someone. From there he couldn't remember another incident where he'd seen her cry before the night her parents had been killed and he'd came to check on her when he heard the news.

Feeling the mattress slightly move, he opened his eyes and looked down to see her readjusting as her breathing changed and she started to drift off to sleep. He wondered if she'd cried when she thought he was dead. Clearly, from her confronting Fish, she was outraged over his ' _murder_ ' but now he couldn't help but wonder if the idea of losing him was enough that it brought her to tears.

It was sick, he thought, to wish that it had broken her heart. To have hope that the idea of losing him had torn her apart inside, but whether it was wrong or not the thoughts couldn't be shooed away.

* * *

 **A/N- Thank you for reading the fourth chapter! ^_^**

 **I owe the biggest thank you in the world to the amazing Miss E Charlotte for all of her support and for leaving a review on the last chapter so long that the website cut her off! lol (Sorry there was no Harvey Dent in this chapter, but he'll be back soon. I promise!)**

 **I'd also like to thank Winchestergirl123, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Lakky and Guest for also reviewing chapter three. I appreciate it more than you guys will ever know!**


	5. The Price of Being Human

**V**

 _"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." -Walter Winchell  
_

* * *

Bird opened her eyes and reached a hand out to her bedside table where she groggily located her alarm clock and raised it up to see it was just after nine in the morning. Every cell in her body was begging her to just close her eyes and block out the sunlight, flip over and go back to sleep.

However; that wasn't an option. She had several things she needed to do that day and she was already getting a late start.

Rubbing her eyes with her hand she started to try and flip over onto her back, but her plan was interrupted when she leaned back against something in the bed behind her. Still trying to come out of her sleep state, she pushed against the object in her way only stopping when she heard a groan and realized it was a person.

Quickly sliding out from under her blanket she stood up and spun around to see it was Oswald, still in the yellow shirt and khaki pants as before, lying on top of the blankets –sound asleep.

Remembering he'd offered to sit with her after the nightmare she'd had, Bird realized he must have never made it back to the couch. She started to reach out and wake him up until she realized just how calm he looked in his sleep.

A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth when she realized he was probably sleeping so sound because this was the safest he'd felt in a long time and she didn't have the heart to wake him.

When a cold gust of morning air blew through the window, she crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. Reaching down she flipped the part of the blanket she'd been covered with back the other way so it covered him and sleepily stumbled towards the window to close it until something caught her eye and she slowly turned her head to her dresser where her bottle of perfume was turned ever so slightly the wrong way.

The knowledge that Oswald was still asleep and couldn't see her didn't stop her from shooting an angry look in his direction before she fixed the bottle of perfume and shook her head. For some reason every time he came into her apartment he moved things around, half the time she felt like he did it just to get on her nerves –there seemed to be no other possible explanation for it.

After shutting the window, gathering her clothes and heading into the bathroom to get ready for the day she silently grabbed her purse and walked into the living room where she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of her coffee table that was now covered in a collage of pictures and newspaper clippings taped down.

Dropping onto her couch to get a better look she saw a map of Gotham City that Oswald had colored different sections to differentiate Maroni and Falcone's territories, not only did he have pictures of the Dons, the mayor and some other high ranking members of Gotham. He also cut out and taped down an article about her parents murders with a picture of them.

There was even a picture of Fish Mooney with a cut out picture of a knife taped over her picture and a hand written strip of paper that read ' _BITCH_ '. He'd also labeled the mayor a dunce and around the middle of the madness he'd written over a newspaper article, ' _Going to wipe everyone out'._

Blowing out a heavy breath, Bird grabbed a decorative blanket off her couch and slung it over the table as a makeshift table cloth before placing the small decorative clear glass bowl of sparkly marbles in the direct center and the three remotes back on her table . Two of them worked and the third was only because she needed a third like item to make the row of three.

As she left her apartment and shut the door behind her she started to consider that maybe her apartment wasn't going to be big enough for both of them and their crazy.

 **~()~**

"Good morning." Bruce greeted his older sister as he walked into the kitchen wiping his tired eyes.

"Hey." Bird greeted back with a smile, before a more serious look fell over her face and she said, "I wondered when you'd wake up, I saw you in dad's office when I got here. You were thrashing around in your sleep."

Coming to a stop, he looked at her with a slightly stunned expression as he questioned, "You saw me having a nightmare… why didn't you wake me?"

Shrugging she replied, "I heard somewhere that nightmares are your brains way of trying to prepare you for different things. Maybe they somehow make you stronger?"

When the buzzer from the oven sounded she pulled on the oven mitts and turned around, to pull the tray of homemade cookies out. As she balanced them on one hand, she used a spatula to move the cookies to a cooling rack.

"I suppose you're right." Bruce quietly said. Though the nightmares he'd been having weren't his brains way of trying to prepare him for anything, they were to torment him over how he'd done nothing when his parents were killed right in front of him.

"But you know…" Bird hummed, glancing back at him, "If I fell asleep staring at crime scene photos of our dead parents, I'd probably have nightmares too."

His eyes widened slightly as he looked up at her, "I need to know who killed them, maybe I can find some sort of clue. Something the police might have missed."

"Do you have any idea how many people are murdered every day in Gotham?" She asked, dropping the empty baking sheet into the sink and spinning around to look at him.

"No. How many?" Bruce questioned as if he expected his sister to give him a number, concrete facts.

"I don't know, but it's a lot." Bird sighed, "Very few of those actually get solved."

His brown eyes darkened some as he argued, "But this wasn't just a murder… they're our parents."

Closing her eyes and realizing how harsh she'd been on the last person who'd deserve it, she said, "But, if anyone can find something the police missed. It's you."

Taking a seat at the island counter, Bruce pulled in a deep breath of the scent of freshly baked cookies. The smell that drifted through the mansion to where he'd been sleeping had been what woke him up.

"Those cookies smell just like mom's." He softly said with a saddened look on his face.

He didn't say it out loud, but when he'd woke up to the smell of baking cookies and wandered into the kitchen he'd expected to see his mother. He'd hoped that everything had just been one long nightmare and his parents weren't really dead.

Looking to his older sister, he thought that it was at least nice to see her. He'd barely seen her a handful of times since they're parents deaths. Since she'd moved out he'd gotten used to her not being around much, but he'd thought now that they were gone she might come around more.

"That would be because it's her recipe." Bird replied looking at him, before crossing the large kitchen to get a container out of a cabinet.

"Why are you here baking cookies?" He questioned.

"I don't have room in my kitchen to bake, really."

Silently he watched her as he patiently waited on the rest of her explanation. He knew her apartment had a small kitchen and about every available surface was covered with stockpiles of food.

Looking over to him she raised her eyebrows at the expression he was giving her and he mimicked her expression, but when it became clear she wasn't going to offer up any more details, Bruce asked, "Okay, but who are you baking for?"

"Well, little brother. These are for you." Bird said as she scooped a few cookies onto a plate and slid them to him.

Scooping the rest into a decorative container she admitted, "And these are for Detective Gordon."

"Why are you baking cookies for Detective Gordon?" He quickly asked.

"Because I messed up." Bird sighed, leaving him more confused than he was to begin with, "I misunderstood something and told someone something that I shouldn't."

"I don't understand." He admitted, taking a bite out of one of the cookies she'd given him.

"Basically, I think I might have gotten him into trouble and I'm hoping once he tastes how good these cookies are that he won't be too mad at me."

She held back a laugh at the serious look on his face while he tried to piece together what she was saying and figure everything out from just the few details she'd provided.

"Could I go with you to deliver them?" He questioned.

"No." She simply answered, causing him to immediately ask, "Why not?"

"Because I need to talk to him." She stated, and when she saw his mouth start to open, probably to ask what about she cut him off with a smirk on her lips, "Adult stuff."

Bruce's eyes locked on his sister in a harsh gaze as he reminded her, "Starling, you know I despise that sort of answer."

"Indeed, I do." She coyly replied, causing him to sigh in frustration and stare down to the plate of cookies that was sitting in front of him, before he saw something on the counter from the corner of his eye and looked over to see a baked pie.

"Who is that for?" He questioned.

"That is for an assistant district attorney." Bird admitted, as she thought back to her last encounter with Harvey Dent.

"You must have upset a lot of people." He laughed, as he shook his head back and forth and Bird looked at him with an expression to show that he really had no idea how badly she'd messed up.

Once she'd left all of the dirty cooking supplies in the sink and threw her trash away, she started to gather her baked goods to leave when Bruce pointed out, "I always thought you didn't come home very much because you were always fighting with dad… but our parents aren't here anymore."

Her brown eyes met his, as he gave a weak shrug and added, "Maybe you could come around more?"

"This big house starting to feel a little too empty?" Bird questioned, a pain shooting through her chest as he nodded in agreement with her words.

She'd moved out of Wayne Manor nearly two years ago and during that time hadn't seen her parents on very many occasions and dealing with their loss still made it hard to get out of bed at times. She couldn't imagine being thirteen and having to go through it, especially when he was much closer to them than she was.

"I'll try to come around more." Bird promised. Even though her parents had made their butler, Alfred Pennyworth, her brothers guardian –she knew it was still her responsibility as his sister to be there for him.

Noticing a bandage wrapped around the palm of his hand, her eyebrows furrowed as she asked, "Hey, what happened to your hand?"

"Oh…" He breathed, holding his hand down at his side as he slowly came around to admitting, "I burned my palm"

"On purpose?" Bird asked, as she walked over to him with concern in her eyes.

"Yes, but it's not what it sounds like." He quickly stammered.

"Really, because it sounds like you're self-injuring."

"I'm trying to conquer fear; testing myself." He explained in a calm voice as if it were a perfectly normal conversation topic to freely admit he'd burned himself.

"Oh, I see." Bird nodded, her voice quiet, but her tone was a little harsh as she realized out loud, "You spend your nights looking at pictures of our dead parents… probably reliving what happened over and over in your head, right?"

With a small, abrupt nod, Bruce let her know she was on the right path as he added, "I'm just so angry, all of the time."

"You have every right to be." She nodded, "You have every right to hate that monster who killed mom and dad. You have every right to be pissed that the GCPD is basically a joke. You can even hate me if you want for backing out of going to the theater at the last minute –because I really should have been there. But Bruce, you can't be mad at yourself over what happened. There is nothing you could have done."

"I should have done something… anything." Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke, but his voice stayed strong.

"If even one thing had gone differently about that night than you could be dead!" Emotion filled her voice, despite her best efforts to keep a hold on the storm raging inside of her.

"If one thing had gone differently than mom and dad might still be alive!" He yelled, the anger inside of him finally getting the best of him.

"There isn't anything you could have done!" She yelled back at him, before being able to stop herself she added, "You are a child."

"I am not!" His voice raised even higher, cracking slightly as he tried to match and surpass how loud she was being.

"You are!" She screamed, pointing a finger at him before grabbing onto his injured hand and saying, "This here, proves it."

He opened his mouth to argue with her more but all that came out was a screech of pain as she roughly pressed her thumb down on the bandage right over the relatively fresh burn wound. Frantically he tried to pull his hand away but his actions only caused the pain to increase, when she kept what felt like a supernatural amount of strength pressed down on his wounded hand.

"Starling, let go!" He yelled, tears burnt at his eyes as he tried again to back away but she didn't let go.

"Stop it." She said, her voice completely calm as she instructed, "Stop fighting."

His breath rushed in and out of his lungs from both pain and fear; he didn't understand why she was purposely hurting him.

"Look at me."

His red rimmed watery eyes met hers as he raised his head to look at his older sister.

"Mind over matter." She stated, her eyes intense as she stared him down, "Pain, fear… control. It's just as much a mental thing as it is physical. You have to find where the edge is in your mind, the threshold and conquer it there before trying to test your body, you got that?"

His mind raced, trying to absorb what she was saying, but his sole focus was how badly his hand hurt from the unforgiving pressure she kept on it.

"But –"

"That ball of anger you've got in here." Bird said as she used her other hand and roughly slapped it against his stomach, causing him to groan and hunch over slightly, "Use it. Focus on that, think about how much you want to find the guy who killed mom and dad. Don't think about your hand. Think about the night they were shot, how it felt when you heard those gunshots and they were gone."

Somehow her words got through to him over the excoriating pain she'd been causing and doing as he was told, he focused on the growing tornado of rage inside of him. His mind raced, replaying the night he'd watched his parents being killed right in front of him. He thought of everything he could have done differently, played out every scenario in which they'd lived –scenarios in which he wasn't entirely consumed with fear and hadn't been paralyzed.

"See?" Bird asked, her eyebrows raised as she stared at her little brother.

"See what?" He questioned shaken from his thoughts, and looked down to see her just then releasing his hand.

"I did it…" He realized in astonishment under his breath, as he raised his hand and saw some blood starting to show through the bandage. He'd actually done it, focused on something else and somehow overcame the pain he'd been in.

"Mind over matter." Bird simply repeated as if she hadn't just put her brother through agony.

Gathering the containers of baked goods she was going to deliver, Bird start to leave until Bruce called after her, "Can you teach me? Teach me how to conquer pain and fear like that?"

"No." She sighed, "Bruce, you're thirteen years old-"

"My age is irrelevant." He argued with her, as he held his injured hand with his other hand and cradled it against his stomach.

"Fear isn't always the enemy, you know. It keeps you human." She said, not looking back at him as she left the kitchen and briskly walked to the front door, wanting to get out of the house as fast as possible.

 **~(Flashback)~**

Thomas sat at the desk in his office at the house as he stared at his nearly eighteen year old daughter, who stood opposite the desk with her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest –a look of fire in her eyes as she said with gravel in her tone, "You can tell mom and Alfred to stop packing my bags, I'm not going."

"Starling-"

"Bird." She corrected, causing him to sigh and show every amount of irritation he was feeling in those moments.

"I'm not calling you by the name you go by on the streets." He matched the heaviness of her tone.

With a shrug she simply stated, "That's the name I want to go by."

"Not while you're under _my_ roof." His words came out before he could stop himself. He knew her response, the same thing she'd been saying for the last few months.

"Well, pretty soon I won't be. I'm almost eighteen."

The knot tightened in his stomach and left a sour taste in his mouth as he thought about the idea of his daughter moving out of Wayne Manor and having complete freedom to do God only knows what with God only knows who. At least if she was living at home, he could somewhat keep an eye on her.

Her brown eyes were narrowed at him with a look of rage he hadn't seen on her before, it was unsettling to say the least. Over the past couple years, mainly the last year, there had been an increasing number of times that he'd look at her and felt like he didn't even know the girl staring back at him.

After she'd been attacked and nearly killed, he didn't expect her to bounce right back into her old life and old ways. He knew the emotional and mental trauma she'd suffered would last far longer than the physical wounds, but she'd been a vastly different person from the bright eyed teenager with a rebellious streak since the attack. There was a darkness in her that at times drained all of the energy from everyone in the house.

Some days she seemed complacent enough and the next it was impossible to even live under the same roof with her.

"It's just for a couple months." He tried to sway her into agreeing to go to an inpatient treatment facility that he'd already made arrangements and paid for. Her mother and their butler Alfred were already up in her room packing her bags, which is what led to her storming into his office.

"No." She growled, "I know what you're doing. You want to lock me in there and throw away the key and it is not happening!"

Standing up, his palms rested flat against the polished surface of the expensive imported wood desk. "You are my daughter and I love you. Try to understand that your mother and I are doing this _for_ you… not _to_ you."

Clearly not believing a word he was telling her, she angrily shook her head back and forth. Her thick brunette locks swooshing in front of her face as she accused, "You don't have someone that you love followed by a private investigator."

"What other choice did you leave me?" He asked, pointing the blame back to her as he added, "Over a year, Starling! For well over a year you've been carrying on this double life that I knew nothing about."

Rolling her eyes and acting years younger than she was, Bird sighed, "I've not been living a double life, dad."

"School by day, dinner with us and then you've been disappearing and come to find out you've been hanging around some nightclub? Committing crimes and running around with that Cobblepot!"

His voice raised despite his best attempts to stay calm. He hardly ever raised his voice to his children, but anymore he felt like screaming at the top of his lungs was the only way to get Starling to hear anything he was saying.

"He is my friend." She argued, her eyes narrowed at him again.

He let out an exasperated noise, at a total and complete loss as to how his daughter had even crossed paths with Oswald Cobblepot, let alone call him a friend. Over the time he'd been having her followed by a private investigator he'd learned that Bird had been spending time with him nearly every single day and after some more digging learned it had been going on for a lot longer than he'd imagined.

"You are a teenager and he is a grown man." The vein on the side of his neck showed under his anger flushed skin.

"Honestly age isn't even a factor here he still lives at home with his mother –who by the way dotes on him like he's a child. Plus, I'm almost eighteen and he is _just_ a friend." She assured him, figuring he'd probably gotten the wrong idea.

"He is not your friend." Thomas argued, no way in hell was he going to accept that.

"He is my best friend!" She exclaimed, "Oswald is the only friend I have."

"You cut your friends out, Starling. You stopped talking to all of them." He reminded her of how she'd alienated herself from all of her classmates.

Sighing, she tucked her hair behind her ears and defended her reasoning, "None of them understand me; not like he does."

"Oh my god." Thomas breathed, rubbing his hands over his face. For the life of him he couldn't understand how she'd gotten those ideas into her head. The only explanation had to be that Oswald had put ideas into her head for reasons he felt he couldn't begin to understand. "Everything that you just said, proves how far away from being an adult you really are."

Her jaw tensed, her dad had no idea how hard she was fighting to keep a lid on her anger. It was churning and bubbling around deep inside of her, like a powder keg that would only need one small spark to ignite. It was that explosive rage that had gotten the best of her before, it made her violent.

"Starling, listen to me. I know that he visited you back when you were in-"

"The crazy house you locked me in?" Her words cut through him like razor blades. After coming to in the hospital after she'd been attacked, she wouldn't say anything. For months after they brought her home she still wouldn't talk, not to anyone. The only option he and Martha felt like they had was to put her somewhere where she could receive around the clock care and therapy to help her accept and heal what had happened to her.

A decision he'd lived to regret after he'd learned that she felt like they'd put her in there to punish her for something. His best efforts to help her had only left her feeling abandoned and scorned.

Knowing trying to defend the decision would do no good, he continued to try and get through to her, "You were in there because you needed help. You lived through something traumatic and mentally you were in such a bad place. He visited you when you were in there, twisted your thoughts up and put ideas into your head. I only wish I'd known then so I could have put a stop to it."

"Because I'm crazy, right? So crazy that I could really be that easily manipulated?"

"You are not crazy." He asserted, a worn down look in his eyes from all of the fighting with her –though she looked like she still had several more rounds left in her, "You have some problems. Psychological problems and we found this place that can help you. A team of psychiatrists and psychologists on staff twenty-four hours a day…"

His voice trailed off when he saw his words weren't getting through to her. She was set in her ways of thinking and the ideas floating around in her head.

"Oh that sounds fun." She sarcastically exclaimed with feigned excitement, "Let me guess how they're going to handle my supposed psychological problems. A pill to help me sleep, another pill to give me energy when I wake up… one to supposedly balance my moods even though they'd put me on pills to cheer me up and another to keep me from being too happy-go-lucky."

"No. They only medicate as a last resort." He said, his voice softening as he spoke. Knowing that the medicine regime she'd been put on at the other asylum she'd been in had done more harm than good. He felt responsible for not looking into the first place she'd been put in more. Everything that he'd known and heard about it had been shining reviews. A beautiful house with a small number of patients so that treatment could be individualized per patient, it seemed to be a classy and a well put together establishment. He'd learned too late that the psychiatrist she'd been seeing was one who seemed to believe there was a pill to fix everything.

He'd give anything to go back and change what happened, give every dime he owned for a time machine to go back and correct his mistakes as a parent –but there was no such thing as a time machine. All he could do was try to right the wrongs, but it was much easier said than done when Starling already had a foot out the door and plans of moving out the day she turned eighteen.

She knew he felt bad, she was getting better at reading emotions. Gaining both more ability and confidence at playing off other people's emotions to get what she wanted and right now all she wanted was the freedom that came with being an adult. After everything she'd been through in her life she felt like she'd earned it.

Looking down to the floor, she pulled in a deep breath and tears filled her eyes as she looked back up to her father and said in a wavering voice, "I know you mean well and that you're just trying to help me, but don't you think I've been through enough? I don't need to go away, I don't need a team of psychiatrists. I just want to live. Like you said I went through something horrible, but I fought and I lived through it. Dad, please don't make me go into treatment. I admit I'm still trying to get back to normal, but I can get there on my own. I just need some time."

Thomas looked at her, his chest psychically hurt as he watched her chin quiver and the tears threaten to spill from her eyes. He wanted to believe her. With every fiber of his being he wanted to believe what she said, he wished he could still trust her –but he'd fell for that before.

Somewhere along the line, his beautiful, kind-hearted daughter had developed the habit of manipulating to get her way. Even if it came down to her manipulating her own family.

Bile burnt at the back of his throat as he choked down the acid from his empty stomach and said in a stern voice, "Starling, there is no getting out of this one. You're going to go get the treatment you need and absolutely no more contact with Cobblepot."

Upon hearing his words, the tears dried in her eyes and right before his eyes the monster residing within his daughter reared it's ugly head and there was a hiss in her voice, "Why can't you just leave me the hell alone, huh? Focus on Bruce instead, you know… the good child."

A chill ran down his spine as all former traces of emotion she'd willingly put on display disappeared and he now seemed to be standing with a complete stranger.

"I am not going into any kind of treatment and you can't ban me from having contact with Oswald. Nobody controls me –but me. If you try to, I will bury myself so deep into the darkness of Gotham City that there won't be enough light in the world to draw me back out." Her threat felt anything but empty to him, and despite being both bigger and stronger than his teenage daughter; when she stepped forward he had to fight the urge to back away from her, "Do you hear me? I will disappear and you will never, ever see me again. You'll spend every night wondering where I am, if I'm cold or hungry… if I'm even still alive."

He swallowed hard as his eyes scanned her face for any sign of a bluff, but if she was bluffing she gave no tell. These were the moments he'd swear someone else was walking around wearing Bird's skin and speaking with her voice. He didn't know who the girl was standing in front of him, but it wasn't his daughter.

She'd mastered the art of hiding things from her mother and him; lead a double life that he'd known nothing of. For all he knew she really had both the means and the contacts to disappear for good, a risk he wasn't willing to take.

Spinning on her heels she started to leave the room, but he stopped her as he called after her.

"Speaking of the private investigator… no one has heard anything from him in a few weeks. It's like he disappeared. You know anything about that?" Thomas questioned. The last he'd heard from Michael, the investigator he'd hired to follow Starling, was that he had enough evidence of various crimes gathered to put Oswald away for a long, long time.

Once he learned of the man his daughter had been spending so much time with, he'd come to the conclusion that Oswald must have been the root of the change he'd seen within her. Hearing from Michael that he had gathered information and evidence enough against him, seemed like a saving grace. If he could get this man behind bars and away from his daughter than maybe there was some way they could start to reach the old Starling that had to still be inside of his daughter somewhere.

Then Michael disappeared without a trace and he was starting to suspect the worst with each passing day.

"Well, obviously he wasn't very good at his job if I found out he was following me." Starling shrugged, "Maybe he dug into something he shouldn't have."

"What are you implying?" Thomas asked, his eyes meeting hers.

"I'm not implying anything." She exclaimed, tossing her arms out to the side with a sigh. "What are you implying, dad? Are you suggesting I killed him or something?"

"Of course not." He quickly answered. Starling might not have been perfect and at times the way her moods fluctuated was frightening, but there was still a huge jump from that to murder. There was no way his daughter would have killed Michael or anyone at all for that matter.

A look of hurt spread over her face as she completely turned to face him as she asked, "You don't really think I could, do you? That I'd even be capable of taking someone's life?"

"No, Starling." He assured her, "I know you didn't hurt him… I'm just not so sure about some of the company you keep."

Her eyes dropped to the floor and he watched her closely as he asked, "If you knew something, details about a crime like that –you'd tell me right?"

Looking up, her eyes met his and she nodded, "Of course I would. I may have some issues, dad… but I'm not a monster."

With that she turned and left the room; he dropped back into his chair and rested his head in his hands. He didn't know what to do. On one hand he was morally against the life and path she seemed to be creating for herself, but on the other hand he knew he'd never forgive himself if he did something that upset her enough she disappeared.

There had to be a limit somewhere, a safe amount of pressure to apply to get her back on the right track without her running off. He just had no idea where that was. Anymore, he felt like one wrong move and he might never see her again.

As much as he wanted to tough love her into cleaning her act up, he needed to know that she knew he would always be there. That no matter how far she drifted or how far she fell –that both of her parents would always love and try to help her.

Bird walked into one of the downstairs bathrooms and pulled the door shut behind her, after clicking the lock she drew a breath in between her clenched teeth and tried to focus on stopping the aching in her head.

He'd believed her, really believed she was incapable of being so monstrous that she could take the life of another human being.

There was a sick satisfaction in knowing that she'd pulled one over on him, but that feeling clashed with the guilt she felt over lying to him and the manipulation.

Her dad might not have thought she was a real monster, but Bird knew differently.

It was just a few weeks ago that her hands had literally been stained with Michael's blood. It wasn't Oswald or anyone from Fish's nightclub who killed him –it was her.

It had started as an accident. She'd gotten her hands on some pills and they made her paranoid enough that she was hearing voices plotting against her and believed every person who'd looked her way on the street was a spy. To her currently sober mind, there was no logic to what she was thinking at the time when it happened, but in those moments she'd been so locked in her delusions that she truly believed everyone was out to get her.

When she wound up in a crumbling abandoned storefront, pacing back and forth talking out loud to herself and Michael followed her in to check on her after seeing her in such a distressed state. She thought he was out to get her and in her mind it had been kill or be killed, so she struck with the speed and lethalness of a viper.

It had felt like a distant thought after the fact, like she'd been watching a movie and once she started to come out of the delusion and the effect of the pills she'd taken wore off, she couldn't believe what she'd done. If it hadn't been for the bloodstains on both her skin and clothes –she'd probably have been able to convince herself it was a nightmare.

In fact, despite not being at all religious by the time she'd made it to Oswald's front door she'd been praying it was still somehow a bad dream. Something that the demons in her mind had thought up and tricked her into believing, but when he got her to take him back to where it had happened; she couldn't deny it anymore.

Seventeen years old and she'd killed someone, if that didn't scar her with the mark of a beast then she wasn't sure what would.

It wasn't until after the fact, once they'd gone through his car that Bird and Oswald realized he'd been following her. He had folders and pictures, journals marking damn neared her every step. The most unsettling was the folders Michael had of Oswald, evidence implicating him in crimes. The pair realized then that he had been a serious threat and she'd thankfully eliminated him before he could hand what he had over to anyone on the police force.

Knowing he was trying to bring her best friend down had made the fact that she'd killed him an easier pill to swallow, but it was still a jagged one. Despite Oswald telling her to forget about the man she'd killed, she couldn't let it go and had found out he was married with a son.

It wasn't the actual murder that haunted her and kept her up at night, it was knowing she was the reason his family would have to carry on living without him. That they'd never know the what or the why of why he never came home that night.

Now his body was weighed down with stone blocks and lying somewhere on the floor of Gotham River, his car had been torn apart and the parts illegally sold off at a chop shop and every paper and picture he'd gathered on Bird and Oswald was burnt down to ash at the bottom of a metal trashcan that street kids gathered around to keep warm on cold nights.

Gone without a trace, except for the traces of that night that remained in Bird's mind, it was something she'd never forget despite her best efforts to do so.

By that point she'd seen people be killed at Fish's club, witnessed Oswald killing people and even helped him dispose of a few bodies –none of which affected her the way it should have. But it was still an entirely different thing knowing she was the one who'd killed him.

She'd been a mess the day it happened and if it hadn't been for Oswald's knowledge and her trust in him on what to do with getting rid of the body and evidence, she'd for sure have been caught. Her tears had poured nonstop that day, late into the night and long after Michael's body had been swallowed up in the dark waters of the river.

 **~(End of flashback)~**

Bird got into the driver's seat of her car and looked back at the mansion she'd grown up in, her mind still drifting into the past as she remembered how much that day had changed everything; changed the course of her future drastically. Murdering someone, taking someone else's life was an act you couldn't come back from.

It left a dark stain on the soul, chipped away at what was left of her already cracked humanity.

After she and Oswald had spent the entire night disposing of evidence and anything that could tie her back to the crime, was when she realized how bound together they were. That their friendship was unlike anything she'd ever known before.

In her darkest moment of desperation, he was the one she'd ran to and it was only because of him that she was walking around free and not locked in a cell serving twenty-five to life. He'd come through for her at a point when anyone else would have turned tail and ran.

Bird remembered standing along the waters edge with Oswald staring at the windblown ripples across the surface, thinking that whatever it was that bonded them together ran just as deep and as dark as the water they'd just dumped a body into.

Closing her eyes, she could still see the look on his face when he turned to her, still slightly breathless from helping her carry the body and large cement blocks, and assured her that everything was okay. That she was fine –because the _next_ time she killed someone it would be easier.

It was like he knew, even before she did, that Michael's wouldn't be the first life she took. He'd told her that it got easier to kill each time. In those moments with tears staining her cheeks and her chest hurting from both the weight of what she'd done and the strain of all the heavy lifting she thought he was crazy –that he had it all wrong because it wasn't something she'd do again.

Glancing back to the house she thought of how much had changed. That seventeen year old watery eyed teenager had turned into an almost twenty year old stone cold killer. Well, some days she felt more like stone than others, other days she could swear some part of the girl she used to be was still in there, desperately clawing and trying to survive in the darkness of her soul.

Rolling her window down, she started the car and took in a breath of the fresh air to help clear her mind as she pushed the thoughts of who she used to be down.

It never did anyone well to dwell in the past; she saw no point in trying to live in another time when she was another person. There was an innocence she'd lost a long time ago that would never come back. She was tainted by the cruelty of the world and the path she'd chose for herself –and most days if she had to be completely honest –she wasn't so sure she'd want to go back.

* * *

 **A/N- Thank you all for reading! I hope you liked the chapter.  
**

 **I'd like to take a moment and say thank you to Miss E Charlotte, Winchestergirl123, Lakky, and xxXWolfsLullabyXxx for reviewing chapter four!**

 **I'd really appreciate it if you'd take the time to leave a review and let me know if you're reading and liking the story. ^_^**


	6. Starcrossed

**VI**

 _"Perception is created and twisted so quickly." -Louis C. K.  
_

* * *

Wearing her best friendly smile, Bird held the container of freshly baked cookies in her arms as she approached where Jim was sitting at his desk which faced his partner Bullock's desk.

Clearing her throat, she greeted, "Jim."

Dropping the pen he'd been writing with, he looked up at her with an ever growing look of confusion as he questioned, "Starling… what are you doing here?"

"Bird." She corrected him, with a slight edge to her voice.

"Alright…" He sighed, before giving the slightest nod, "Bird, what are you doing here?"

"I –um, I baked cookies." She announced proudly displaying the container and stating, "These are for you."

"What'd you put in them?" Bullock asked, taking a break from his own paperwork.

Her brown eyes cut over in his direction as she hissed, "Not like I poisoned them."

"Here." She said, looking back to Jim and lightly shook the container.

Slowly reaching up and taking the cookies from her, Jim's words came out in the tone of a question as he said, "Thank you?"

"I wouldn't eat those, Jim." Bullock said, looking back to his paperwork as he added, "That one's got the crazy eyes."

Biting down on the side of her tongue and ignoring Harvey Bullock's remarks, Bird asked, "Jim, can we talk?"

Seeing Bullock's attention cut back to them, she said through her teeth, "Privately."

"Yeah." He nodded, curious as to what she was doing there and why she'd brought him cookies. Especially after this last encounter with her made him wonder if she was unstable enough that she might actually try to take revenge on him for thinking he'd killed Oswald Cobblepot.

As he started to stand up to lead her somewhere they could talk alone, Bird saw Bullock starting to reach out for the container of cookies and without hesitation she reached out and slapped his hand away.

"Hey!" He raised his voice at her, "You just assaulted a GCPD detective."

Jim held back a laugh as Bird turned to Bullock and countered, "That's slander… you cookie thief."

"Cookie thief? I'm just watching out for my partner. Testing to make sure you didn't poison these." He called after them, as Jim and Bird walked away. He picked the container of cookies up and opened it. Even if he was considering they'd been poisoned, they smelt so good he was thinking just one cookie couldn't be too dangerous.

Leading Bird over to the side away from any seemingly prying eyes and ears, Jim looked at her and gave a small nod for her to explain what she was doing there.

"I'm sorry." She said, her eyes matched the sincere tone in her voice, "I acted prematurely without having all of the facts and I owe you an apology for that."

His head cocked to the side as he started to gather this was an apology for far more than just startling him enough that he'd almost wrecked his car.

"Bird…" He said his eyebrows raised in question, "Why are you really here?"

"To apologize and to thank you." She admitted.

"Thank me for what?"

"For you know… being a decent guy and not killing someone just because the orders came from Don Falcone."

His eyes widened and despite her voice having barely been over a whisper, Jim suddenly felt like all eyes in the police station were on them.

Taking a hold of her arm he led her into a room where they could talk alone without the chance of anyone overhearing them.

As he pulled the door behind them Bird looked around the small room with just a table and chairs in the direct center. "Wow, an interrogation room… been a while since I've been in one of these."

Ignoring her remark and giving her a look to show he didn't think what she'd said was funny, he asked, "Cobblepot contacted you?"

"Indeed he did." She smiled, "Thanks to you, you know, for not killing him."

"Is he back in Gotham?" Jim pried, sweat starting to bead along his forehead. He'd let him live on the condition that he wouldn't ever return to Gotham City.

"No." Bird lied with a feigned look of sincerity, "He called me is all."

"No one can know he's alive." Jim stated through his gritted teeth, though it seemed he was more talking to himself out loud than ordering her not to tell anyone.

"Would you just relax? I'm not going to tell anyone." She tried to ease his nerves, but her words did nothing to calm him.

Seeing how distressed he still looked she added, "If word got back to Fish or Falcone than Oswald would be dead, for real this time."

Even though she knew Carmine Falcone was very much aware of Oswald's life being spared, that was an ever bigger, highly guarded secret. She had to play along like Gotham's biggest crime boss really wanted her friend dead.

"Yeah, and I'd be dead." Jim added, rubbing his forehead.

"I don't care as much about that really… but also a valid point." Bird nodded.

Jim looked at her with a slightly blank, partially stunned expression to which Bird shrugged and defended, "I can't care about everyone, Jim. I have to prioritize and I value Oswald's life, very much so."

"Okay." Jim muttered, shaking his head back and forth as he placed a hand on the side of her upper back and pushed her towards the door, "You need to get out of here."

Just as he started to open the door he added, "Thanks for the cookies."

"Oh!" She exclaimed pulling away from him, her brown eyes were wide as she faced him. "Those cookies are a gift from the heart… in hopes you won't hate me too much when I tell you what I'm about to tell you."

One eye slightly narrowed as he asked, "What are you about to tell me?"

"Well, as you remember from the last time we spoke. I was rather upset over thinking you'd killed my friend… as I recall you said I was in a bad place-"

"Uh-huh…"

"Well, I might have let slip to two detectives who questioned me that you were the one who killed Oswald."

"You what?" He exclaimed, his face taking on a reddened tone, realizing which detectives she was talking about he asked, "Montoya and Allen?"

"Yeah…"

Of course, he thought. Of course out of all the detectives who were considered to be ' _with the program',_ she'd spilled the details to two who actually wanted to clean up Gotham. Since they'd uncovered that Mario Pepper had been framed for the Wayne's murders, he'd felt like they'd been out to get him.

"And you thought bringing me baked goods was going to fix this?" He asked in astonishment. No amount of homemade cookies would fix anything if he was arrested and thrown behind bars.

"Tell me how to fix this. What should I do?" She asked, her voice rushed, "Do you want me to go tell them I lied or something?"

"No!" He quickly said. The eldest Wayne child had already caused enough grief for him, the last thing he needed was her getting more involved and possibly screwing things up even more. Though, it was beginning to feel like that might be impossible.

"From now on just stay out of it." He instructed, as he held the door open for her to leave. As she walked past him he added in a weary voice, "Just don't even talk to anyone else."

With an indifferent shrug, Bird walked out in the hallway. She realized now that she'd jumped the gun when she straight up told the MCU detectives that Jim had killed Oswald, but she'd only allow herself to feel so much guilt over it, considering at the time she really believed that was what had happened.

Plus, she wasn't too worried about what happened to Detective Gordon. If everything Oswald told her was true than it wouldn't be long before everyone would know he was back anyways. They couldn't throw Jim in jail for murder when his supposed victim was up roaming the streets of Gotham very much alive.

When her freshly charged cellphone rang from her pocket, she took it out to see she was receiving a call from her landline number. Knowing it had to be Oswald calling her, she breathed a small sigh of relief, she'd hoped he stay inside for the day. Less likely that he'd be seen by anyone.

With a groan, Bird collided with someone else –hard enough that her phone dropped from her hand before she could answer it and a stack of papers flew up into the air just before raining down on them like confetti.

Looking up slightly stunned from the collision, she was met by an almost equally confused expression on the face of a man she'd never seen before. He was tall, with brown hair and old fashioned framed glasses. Clearly, neither of them had been paying attention to where they were walking.

"I wasn't watching where I was going." He admitted, leaning down to pick up her fallen cellphone from the ground. Handing it back to her he added, "Sorry."

Flipping her phone shut and tucking it back inside of her pocket she gave a small shrug and let some of the blame fall on her own shoulders as she admitted, "I wasn't really paying attention either."

In silence they both knelt down and began gathering up the folders that he'd dropped. Picking up a crime scene photo of a young man who looked to have been stabbed repeatedly and have more blood puddled around his lifeless body than could have possibly been left in it, Bird let out a whistle under her breath as she nodded, "Yeah, this right here is definitely more interesting than watching where you're going."

He raised his head to see what she was looking at, but before he could he heard some men nearby snickering and looked over in their direction. Of course they were watching and laughing at him for running into someone.

Blowing out a heavy breath, Ed shook his head back and forth. It didn't matter that he was the smartest guy in not just the room but likely the entire building. Just because he wasn't as socially adept as everyone else, he often ended up being on the receiving end of their snide remarks.

Most days he dealt with the abuse silently, blocked them out and did the job that he was paid to do. But somedays it was harder than others.

His eyes darted back to the girl he'd ran into, who was still helping him gather his scattered mess of papers. Either unaware of the officers nearby laughing or wasn't worried about it, she didn't seem like the type of person who'd normally be laughed at –so she probably wasn't worried if she did hear them.

It was upon closer examination, that he realized he'd ran into Starling Wayne. It wasn't at all uncommon for the Wayne family to be pestered by Gotham's paparazzi at various city events and after the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne –there had been a few articles and news reports on the children they'd left behind.

"Thank you." He said politely, "But you don't have to stay and help."

"And miss out on looking at this?" She questioned, displaying another very gruesome crime scene photo.

"Technically, you're not supposed to see that." He said, taking it from her before admitting, "It's an open case."

Eyeing his clothes she pointed out, "You don't look like a cop."

"That's because I'm not. I'm a forensic scientist." He proudly explained, before adding in an introduction at the tail end of his sentence, "I'm Edward. Edward Nygma."

"Nice to meet you, Edward Nygma." Bird said, as she picked up another folder and handed it to him with a friendly smile. Something he didn't see too often, especially directed at him.

"I'm-"

"I know who you are." He said as he stood up with all of the papers now gathered and stacked neatly in his arms as he held them against his chest, "I worked on your parent's case. I examined the bullet that killed your father."

With raised eyebrows, Bird nodded, "Lovely…"

"I probably shouldn't have brought that up." He quickly realized.

Despite being the smartest one in the room, he always managed to say the wrong thing to people and most times didn't notice until much later after the fact. On rare occasion he'd catch it soon after the fact.

"Nah…" She breathed, tucking her hair behind her ear as she sarcastically added, "Slain parents are a perfectly normal conversation topic."

Shaking her head in disbelief she took her phone from her pocket and the florissant lighting reflected from a glittery, shiny cartoonish green frog face sticker on the back of her phone and caught his eye.

"What's green and then red?" Ed asked before he could stop himself. He knew again, it probably wasn't the most appropriate time for a riddle, but whenever one hit him –he had to say it out loud.

"What?" Bird asked, her face scrunching up at the odd question.

"You give up?" He asked, not giving her time to answer before answering, "Frogs in a blender."

Her mouth hung slightly open in surprise, still caught off guard by the sudden joke that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Looking down she saw the sticker on her phone and realized that must have been what sparked the seemingly random question. It was one of the shiniest stickers she'd ever seen. Earlier that year, she'd taken her brother to a doctor's appointment when her parents had been busy and there was a young girl in the waiting room with a sticker book that sat next to Bird.

Once her eyes landed on the shiniest sticker in the book she knew she had to have it. It costed her five dollars and some strange looks from the girl's mother, but she'd gotten the sticker.

"Frogs in a blender?" Bird repeated back to him.

He nodded a few times at such a fast pace, she wondered how his glasses stayed on his face.

"That's…" Her voice trailed off and he prepared for an insult from her, but she completely took him by surprise when a wide smile spread over her lips, revealing her perfectly white teeth as she laughed, "That is so morbid… I love it!"

Now it was his turn to be caught off guard. No one ever laughed at his jokes, most recently Jim Gordon had played along and answered a riddle correctly, but even he hadn't laughed.

"You… thought that was funny?" He questioned, unable to hide his complete and utter shock.

Still chuckling, Bird asked, "Wasn't it meant to be funny?"

"Yes." He curtly replied, "It's just… no one ever laughs."

Cocking her head to the side, she questioned, "Why not?"

His eyes drifted past her to where the cops were still talking amongst themselves instead of trying to do anything productive, and she followed his gaze and knew they had to have been the ones laughing that she'd heard moments before.

"More often than not, people just think I'm…" His shoulders gave a subtle shrug as he admitted, "Strange."

"Ah." She nodded, "People tend to think that anyone not cut with the same dull cookie cutter as they were –are weird."

Her words earned a smile from him and a nod of agreement. Returning the smile, she started to walk past him towards the door but he stopped her as he asked, "Hey…"

Looking back to him she hummed, "Hmm?"

His eyes cut over to the police still congregating off to the side, in particular the larger one in the middle who's skin was so red it could be comparable to a ripe tomato.

Holding back a laugh he questioned, "What do you call a pig with a sunburn?"

Bird's eyes squinted in thought for a moment before she laughed and answered, "Bacon."

His smile grew as he nodded, happy she not only found him funny but played along and got the answer right.

Shaking her head and still laughing, she said, "You know, Nygma… being weird isn't a bad thing. Keeps life interesting."

With those words she turned and left and he continued on his way through the station, still holding the folders to his chest as he smiled to himself from the encounter. He'd heard talk of her around Gotham, conflicting rumors –everything from her being a criminal to other people saying she was crazy, more often than not he'd heard she wasn't the most pleasant person to be around. However; he felt like he'd just possibly met of the nicest people in Gotham City.

 **~()~**

Pausing at the door to Harvey Dent's office, Bird watched him sitting at his desk and writing in a yellow paper legal pad. A small smile spread over her lips as she saw how deep in thought he seemed to be, so much so that he hadn't noticed she was there.

Reaching a hand out to the side she tapped with her knuckles against the open wooden door, successfully getting his attention.

Looking up, he gave her a questioning look as he slowly laid his pen down flat on the pad of paper and greeted, "Starling." Leaning back in his chair, his eyes locked on her as he asked, "Come to accuse me of sending you something else?"

Lowering her head slightly, Bird looked at him from under her long, dark coated eyelashes as she replied, "No, the opposite actually. I come bearing an apology and a gift."

The look he'd been wearing that verged on annoyance changed to one of intrigue as he watched her walk into his office and gently set what looked and smelled to be a very delicious homemade pie down next to the notepad he'd been writing on.

When he looked back up at her, she smiled widely –seeming very proud of herself.

Harvey raised his eyebrows expectantly and the smile slightly fell from her lips as she asked, "What…"

"The apology." He stated, holding back a laugh at the look on her face.

Closing her eyes she blew out a small sigh and it was clear to him that apologizing was something she didn't like having to do, possibly even something she rarely did.

"Mr. Dent, please accept my deepest apologies for how I acted the other day." Her dimples showed as she fought against the muscles in her face that were threatening to smile at him.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Miss Wayne." He answered, leaning forward and folding his hands on his desk as he explained, "That apology didn't seem at all sincere."

Finally, despite her best efforts to play serious, she laughed –the beautiful sound immediately bringing a smile to his own lips as he watched her.

"I really am sorry." Bird apologized, "You were being nice and I was really rude to you. I know this doesn't exactly make up for how I acted, but I spent most of this morning baking this pie for you. It's my mom's recipe and I promise… one bite of that and you won't be mad at me anymore."

Her words brought out a laugh from him, even through it's decorative carrying container he could smell the pie and he didn't doubt what she said one bit –not that he was even still mad at her.

"Thank you." He said, his eyes moving over her face and seeing how well the cuts were healing and the bruises were barely even visible anymore. The question of who hurt her still burned away inside of him, but he had a feeling asking her wouldn't accomplish anything other than probably making her vanish on him again.

"I also feel like an idiot for accusing you of sending me flowers." Bird openly admitted, "It was really shameless for me to do so."

He opened his mouth, but before he could get a word in she added, "Even though you were flirting with me while I was here, learning about the inheritance my dad left me. So it does pose the question of who's actions were more shameless."

Shaking his head back and forth he conceded with a laugh, "I suppose it does."

He watched as she bit down on her bottom lip and broke eye contact with him.

"So it's safe to assume you found the culprit who sent you the flowers?"

"Yeah." She laughed, waving a dismissive hand, "They were from a very close friend. He resurfaced recently, after I was under the impression that I'd never see him again."

"An old boyfriend?" Harvey asked, watching her face closely to gauge her reaction.

"No, just a close friend." Bird explained, playfully raising an eyebrow when she questioned, "Why… jealous?"

"How could I be? You barely know me and you took my head off when you thought I sent you flowers, I can only imagine you read him the riot act over it." Harvey joked.

Both encounters he'd had with Bird had ended abruptly and left him trying to sort out the mixed signals from her. She'd went from flirting with him to scolding him and accusing him of stuff he hadn't done and now she'd baked him a pie.

She seemed nothing short of a mystery –admittedly a mystery he was wanting to unravel more and more each time they crossed paths.

"I'd better get going." She said, despite stepping closer to his desk, "I know you must be busy, trying to clean up Gotham and all. Doing the impossible."

"Where there's a will, there's a way." He smugly countered, his eyes drifting down as he saw her reaching for the pen he'd been writing with.

With lightning fast speed, he swiped the pen up just before she could grab it. He'd already lost one very expensive pen to her apparently sticky fingers –he didn't want to lose another one.

Her jaw dropped as she looked up at him and was met by a self-satisfied expression on his face, that he'd managed to move faster than her and derail her theft plan. Little did he know, she wasn't planning on stealing his pen this time –she was going to leave him with her own number. Bird had no idea if he'd actually call her or if she'd even agree to a date if he did call, but she liked the idea of leaving the ball in his court.

"Jokes on you, I was going to give you my number." She stubbornly stated, with her arms now crossed over her chest as she tapped her foot against the floor.

With eyes squinted ever so slightly in disbelief at her words, Harvey pointed out, "I already gave you my number."

"True, but I lost your card." She said truthfully.

Giving her a smile that could have made even the sturdiest knees feel weak he said, "We could just skip the awkward ' _who calls who first_ ', and you could just agree to have dinner with me this Friday."

"I don't know…" She said, appearing to really give the idea some deep thought.

"Come on, you just said you were going to give me your number." He tried to persuade her.

With a smirk on her lips she nodded, "That doesn't mean I was going to agree to go on a date with you."

"I promise to not buy you flowers… ever."

Letting out a laugh she, shook her head back and forth, "I don't know, Mr. Dent. We're very different people who seem to want very different things out of Gotham –sounds like a recipe for heartbreak to me."

"Heartbreak, Miss Wayne?" He countered, "I thought we were talking about dinner, not marriage."

His eyes moved from meeting her gaze down to where she bit down on her bottom lip again, slightly shaking her head back and forth like she were trying to internally talk herself out of a bad idea. Her eyes were locked in an unwavering stare at him with a hint of playfulness in their brown hues.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he added, "Even though, if you keep looking at me like that… I'd be inclined to agree to either one."

Her head dropped forward in response to his words, her dark brunette hair falling around her face, leaving it perfectly framed as she looked back up at him. She still felt like it would be a recipe for heartache. He wanted to change Gotham for the better –if he started to know the real her, it would never work between them. Chances were if they both kept on the same tracks, he might very well be prosecuting her one day for a future crime she was sure to commit.

Still, his good looks and charm, not to mention his ability to keep a smile on her face made her want to give in. Agree to dinner and just see where things went between them, she'd always been a fan of just living in the moment, but she still couldn't shake the feeling they might be doomed before they ever began.

"I don't think that's such a good idea-" Bird started to decline, but he quickly cut her off before she could tell him no.

"Then don't think about it. Let's leave it to chance." Harvey said as he pulled a coin from his pocket. It was a two-headed coin he'd inherited from his father, a coin he often used to convince teenagers who'd gotten on the wrong path to clean their act up. He'd toss a coin and have them pick a side, if they picked right then they'd go free; if they guessed wrong it was jail time he'd say -in his experience almost everyone seemed to pick to heads, and then make them promise they'd get back on the right track and saying that someone from above loves and was looking out for them.

He was going to try something similar with her, but he had the feeling she'd go against the beaten path and pick tails so he improvised some.

"How about this –heads and we go to dinner, tails and we'll say it just wasn't meant to be." Harvey said, rubbing this thumb over the coin as he spoke.

"Leaving fate up to chance?" Bird questioned, looking rather amused by the situation.

"I've seen the innocent pay for the sins of others and the guilty walk free. Sometimes I can't help but feel like chance might be the only real decency in this world we live in." He explained and he could see in her eyes that he had her; moments before she ever agreed out loud.

"What the hell?" She agreed, tossing her arms out to the sides, "Heads we give this a shot and tails we part ways."

Using his best poker face to cover the self-assuredness that came with knowing the only option his coin provided was heads, he locked eyes with her as he flipped the coin up into the air and effortlessly caught it.

Laying it flat against the back of his hand he slowly moved his hand away to reveal the coin had landed on heads.

"Well, well, well…" Bird's voice carried her voice like a song as she shrugged and smirked, "Looks like we're meant to be."

Tucking the coin safely back in his pocket he questioned, "Should I file for the marriage license now or later?"

Letting out a laugh, Bird picked up a piece of paper off his desk and wrote her number down on it. As she was writing he noticed she was using his pen that she'd taken from him the last time they'd met in his office.

Handing it to him she smiled, "Let's just see how dinner goes first. Call me later and I'll let you know if Friday is good for me."

"Agreed." Harvey smiled at her, not taking his eyes off of her as she left the office.

 **~()~**

It was nearly dark by the time Bird made it back to her apartment that night. As she opened the door, she found Oswald on her couch staring intently down to the collage he'd taped onto her coffee table.

The blanket she'd covered it with was off to the side and the remotes and marble centerpiece was on the floor beside the table.

"Hey." She greeted, biting the side of the tongue and resisting the urge to snap at him for moving her stuff around when he knew how much it bothered her. After all she had been the one who invited him to stay with her until it was safe for him to go home.

"Evening, Bird." He replied, with a coldness to his tone that even the flames raging in the fireplace could warm.

Her head tilted to the side, wondering what on earth he could possibly have to be mad at her about.

Soon she got her answer when he cleared his throat and avoided her eyes as he said, "I tried calling you earlier."

"Oh, god." She breathed, a hand landing on her forehead as she remembered getting a call from him right before she'd quite literally bumped into Edward Nygma at the police station, "I meant to call you back after I left the station, but I forgot."

He looked up at her as her response seemed to lack the apology he'd expected for being ignored.

In silence he watched her as she hung some garment bags on the back of the front door, dropped a bag and her purse into the chair across from him and walked over to the small closet to take her coat off.

"The station?" He finally asked when she didn't offer up any more details.

"Yeah, I dropped by the police station to apologize to Jim Gordon for the way I acted." She explained, unwrapping the scarf from her neck as she spoke.

"How is he?" Oswald questioned.

"Um, he's been better." Bird replied, her tongue clicking against the back of her teeth, "It's only a matter of time before the MCU is gonna get him for your murder though."

"That won't happen." Oswald said confidently, "I won't be living in secrecy for much longer. I have a plan, which I need some assistance in pulling off. Hence my phone call you blatantly ignored."

He knew she couldn't claim her phone wasn't charged, he'd seen it charging and went through her contact list before he'd showered the night before to see if she added any new numbers in since the last time he'd gone snooping.

"I had a busy day!" She defended, taking a snappy tone with him, "I went to check on my brother and baked some cookies to aide in my apology to Jim and a pie for when I went to talk to Harvey."

"Harvey?" He questioned, his mind immediately going to the business card she'd accidently given him in the cash the day she'd found him. Harvey Dent was the name he'd been searching her contact list for in her cellphone, with the intent to delete the number if he came across it.

Seeming to either not hear him or not care enough to answer, she looked at him with a wide beaming smile, "And then I got you a few things."

Standing up he smoothed the yellow polo shirt he'd been wearing since the night before and waited eagerly and curiously to see what she'd brought for him.

"Ta-da!" She exclaimed as she went back to the garment bags and unzipped the first one to reveal one of his suits.

"My clothes." He realized, a smile spreading over his lips as he walked over and ran his fingers across the expensive fabric. How he'd missed wearing his own clothes.

"Some of them." Bird nodded, smiling as she thought of how the look on his face resembled a child on Christmas morning. "I waited until your mother left and picked the lock to get in. I was only able to grab a few things but-"

"Thank you for this." He said, as he zipped the bag back up.

"Also grabbed these." She said, as she unzipped the bag she'd dropped in the chair and threw two articles of black clothing at him, as soon as he felt the fabric in his hands he knew it was the top and bottom of his favorite pajamas.

Motioning to the clothes he was wearing she sympathized, "Those cannot be comfortable to sleep in."

"Truly, I am thankful for this." He said, looking at her and almost shyly adding, "Thankful for you."

Every ounce of anger he'd been holding onto had long since faded. Not only did it mean an incredible amount to him that she'd brought him his own clothes in an attempt to make him more comfortable, but just having tangible items from his old life started to make him feel like he was even closer to coming out on top.

"Well, I'm thankful that you're unusually hard to kill." Bird joked, though there was a serious look in her eyes as she added, "It killed me, you know? Thinking you were really dead."

He fought against the urge to pry and ask her just how much the thought of his death had hurt her. He wondered if it was a constant but bearable ache or a hurt so intense that it made her question if she could go on.

"I'm going to change." He announced, as he disappeared into her bedroom to get to the bathroom.

Walking over to her fire place, she picked up one of the iron pokers and moved the fresh logs he must have recently added, letting out a sigh when she noticed things had been moved around on her bookshelf that was set off to the side.

Returning the poker to its holder, she walked over and put everything back in its place. Her heart slightly picked up when she became aware of all the things in her living room that had been moved around. It was like he'd spent the day going around and moving her stuff just enough that it would be noticeable to her.

Rubbing her forehead she realized he was angry enough she'd ignored his call that he very well might have don't just that.

Emerging from her bedroom, dressed in his plain back long sleeve pajama set, he gave her a smile, a real smile of genuine happiness that made it hard to stay mad at him.

Bird didn't know all of the details of what he'd been through recently, but she knew enough to know that he'd lived every day in fear and had been tested in every single way. Now, not only knowing he was alive, but seeing him safe and happy made it impossible to stay upset about him moving things around in her apartment.

Since she'd thought she'd lost him, it had changed her perspective on things. Those nights she'd laid in bed thinking she'd never see him again made her retrace their entire friendship, the good parts and the bad. There were so many fights they'd gotten into over silly little things that she'd deeply regretted and thought that if she was given the chance to do it all over again she'd lighten up about certain things.

Smiling back at him and deciding to take the high road and not start a fight, she said in a calm but slightly strained voice, "I'm going to change too."

He nodded and waited until she was out of sight before he hurried around the room, trying to remember what all he'd moved around and get her items back in their rightful places. After she'd ignored his phone call, he'd sat there in silence, very much locked in his head and churning over all these scenarios of what she could be out doing that was so important she wouldn't answer his call.

Finally, it got to be too much and he decided to get back at her –thus began his subtle rearranging of items throughout her apartment all while laughing manically to himself over knowing how badly it would bother her when she finally decided to come home.

He now knew how childish it had been and the knowledge that part of why she'd been gone so long was to pick up some of his clothes left him feeling guilty and regretful about how he'd reacted.

Meanwhile, Bird now stood in her bedroom hands down at her sides balled in fists as she stared at the top of her dresser. Her bottles of perfume and lotions were completely rearranged with bottles facing all different directions, the candles in front of her window had also been moved around and with each passing second it was becoming harder to keep control of her anger.

Closing her eyes she fought to pull in a few deep breaths, after which she immediately got to work, in a very frantic manner, to restore the room to the way she always kept it.

After fixing everything he could remember moving around, Oswald sat back own on the couch and drummed his fingers nervously on his knees while listening to the sounds of bottles clanking against her dresser and the occasional exasperated indiscernible noises that left him believing she was trying to refrain from screaming.

He'd done it this time, he thought. She was going to come out of her bedroom at any minute and tell him to just take his bags and get out, he was sure of it.

The minutes felt like hours, until the door to her room opened and she finally came out dressed in a pair of dark silky shorts with dark purple lace around the edges and a matching spaghetti strap top.

In complete silence she walked over and dropped onto the couch beside him, pulling both of her legs up to her chest and resting her head ontop of them –staring straight ahead and refusing to look over at him.

Her dark hair was pulled up in a messy bun at the top of her head, and her freshly washed face had red marks across her cheeks from how hard she'd scrubbed it out of frustration from seeing even things in her bathroom had been moved around. She didn't need the make-up, he thought to himself, she was beautiful without it.

The pair sat in silence, her staring straight ahead and him mainly looking at the collage of pictures on the table while stealing the occasional glance at her.

"Are we going to talk about it?" He finally asked, carefully trying to gauge just how angry she was at him.

"Nope." She replied, blowing out a heavy breath and still struggling to not explode with anger at him.

Bird was always someone he could sit in complete silence with and feel comfortable, there was never any need to try and fill the space with small talk. But tonight was one of the nights he wished she'd talk about anything –even if she commented on the weather.

Raising his head, he finally followed her gaze to realize she'd been staring at the garment bags containing a few of his suits that she'd brought for him. His eyes widened slightly as he realized she was probably being so quiet because she was plotting a way to get back at him.

"I'd better move those to a closet." He slightly stammered; crossing the room as fast as possible with his injured leg and moved them into the coat closet, he was banking on the out-of-sight; out-of-mind theory.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, feeling gnawing pains pulling at his stomach with the growling sound that followed them.

"Nope."

Hobbling into her small kitchen, he placed a couple slices of bread onto a small plate and opened the cabinet retrieve the peanut butter. A slight chuckle on his lips at seeing both three jars of crunchy style peanut butter and three of creamy. He knew Bird preferred the crunchy, but kept creamy stocked in her kitchen for him and with her obsession of having items lined up in rows of three it added up an entire shelf being filled with peanut butter.

Just as he picked up a knife he realized leaving her alone with his clothes for an extended period of time probably wasn't the best idea, with that thought he carried everything with him into the living room where he found her still sitting on the couch.

As he sat down, and laid the items out on top of the tabletop collage, Bird's anger seemed to have faded enough that she was willing to carry on a conversation with him.

"You said you needed my help with something?"

"Yes!" He quickly exclaimed, as he stopped smearing the peanut butter on the bread and looked over to her. "Things haven't been moving at a favorable pace with Maroni; in order to get away from being tasked with washing dishes –he has to trust me."

He launched into his explanation of how he wanted to hire a group of petty thieves to rob the restaurant on a day when the counters would be there with large sums of cash to tally everything up.

"I'd manage to save one of the bags, of course. The manager wouldn't survive the robbery. Then when Maroni got there, he'd see that even while staring danger and death in the face I remained loyal to him and his cause."

Looking down to the table and staring at the picture of Don Maroni he'd put in the collage, he thought out loud, "He'd have no choice other than to show his appreciation by having me fill the shoes of manager. One giant step closer to being in his trusted circle."

"I know some guys." Bird agreed, figuring that was the part of the plan he required her help with.

"Excellent." He said, a distant tone in his voice as his mind filled with images of all the power and wealth that would surely be his in the future when he'd claim the throne as King of Gotham.

"I can call them tomorrow."

Looking over to her he saw she was eating the peanut butter straight from the jar, off the knife he'd been trying to make a sand which with.

"You said you weren't hungry." He stated, as he took the jar from her and held his hand out for the knife.

"I wasn't." She said with a pout on her lips as she handed him the knife and he got back to work on preparing his dinner.

As he gave more thought to his plan he asked, "You're not fond of them, are you?"

When she raised her eyebrows; he elaborated, "We couldn't leave them alive."

"You know the list of people I'm fond of is a very short list."

"So, what's my next move?" Bird questioned, wondering what he had in store for her.

"Can you get back into Fish Mooney's good graces? We need to keep a very close eye on her." Oswald said.

"Yeah, I can get back in." Bird assured him, "But once she finds out you're alive, you realize she might just kill me for not telling her?"

"So you'll be the one to tell her, when the time comes and I am safe under Maroni's protection." Continuing to think the various elements of his plan through he added, "And soon I'll let Jim know I'm back in Gotham, and feed him the information he needs to take down our enemies from a legal standpoint. It's a win/win."

Finishing the sandwhich, he cut it and handed Bird half. Smiling she took it and thanked him before asking, "No part of this evil mastermind plan takes place on Friday, right?"

"I don't think so. Why?" He asked, watching her closely as he took a bite of his peanut butter and bread.

"Because I think I've got a date." She admitted to him, smiling as she spoke.

His mind raced, trying to think of every excuse possible as to why she needed to cancel her plans for Friday but all he could draw were blanks.

"With who?" Oswald asked in a strained voice, taking another bite of his sandwich in such a violent manner it hurt his teeth.

"An assistant district attorney, his name is Harvey." She answered, "Harvey Dent."

"Another corrupt lawyer in Gotham." He complained with an eye roll, "Who's payroll is he on?"

"That's just it… he's not working for anyone. He's just doing his job and trying to clean up Gotham."

They sat in silence again as Bird finished eating and Oswald tried to think of what to say. He had no valid reasons as to why she should not go on the date, other than the fact that he was an only child who'd been spoiled and never learned to share.

He considered her to be his, _his Bird_ and though they remained just friends the idea of her getting romantically involved with anyone made him sick on several different levels. Not to mention he knew no one would ever be good enough for her, no one would ever know her as well and care as much for her as he did.

Those were the precise reasons that the guys who'd worked at Fish's club that had tried to pursue her were no longer among the living. He killed them to both keep her for himself and to protect her from being hurt by them –completely justifiable reasons in his mind. He'd do anything for her, including getting rid of the things and people in her life that weren't good for her –even if she wasn't privy to the fact that he'd been doing so.

Seeing the smile on her face when she talked about Harvey Dent, shot a pain through him and made him regret eating anything from fear it might come back up. A fact that also made him realize he couldn't simply kill this suitor of hers –the others she didn't seem to care about, but if she really liked Harvey and found out he'd killed him, he might lose her and he couldn't take that risk.

His eyes pinned shut and he tried to calm himself, tell himself he'd be king soon enough. Then the city would be his and surely she'd view him in a different light. She'd never made him feel like he needed to prove anything to her, but inside he felt like he did.

Before he could stop himself, he spoke out of anger as he remembered what she'd said about Harvey wanting to clean up Gotham, "And what will become of your relationship when he learns you're one of the criminals he's wanting to rid the streets of?"

With an internal sigh he prepared himself for the backlash that comment was sure to receive; only surprisingly she didn't seem to take offense to what he said.

Instead she calmly admitted, "I thought about that too."

His heart sank, straight out of his body and down into the hellfire scorched pits of hell at her words. The fact that she thought about that too meant she'd really been considering a serious relationship with him; had at least given some degree of thought to a future shared between them.

On second thought, he'd rather she'd taken offense and lashed out at him.

"But, I'm pretty good about keeping parts of my life separate." She pointed out.

"Yes, but at some point those separate parts would cross. Maybe not tomorrow, but at some point you won't be able to keep them from bleeding into one another." He said, wondering if his voice sounded as weak and feeble as it did in his own mind.

Turning in her seat to face him more, her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she said, "You know my dad said something similar to me once after he found out I'd been leading a so-called double life."

Her phone cut through the silence the room had fallen into and she stood up and retrieved her phone. Not recognizing the number on the screen she assumed it was probably Harvey.

"I'll call those guys tomorrow about the robbery." She told Oswald, before pausing in her bedroom door with the still ringing phone in her hand as she said, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Bird." He politely replied, though it seemed the night would be anything but good now.

Shutting the door he heard her answer the phone.

" _Hello?"_

Silently he hoped it was someone else calling, best case scenario maybe her brother –but his hopes were quickly dashed as he heard the next words from her.

" _Harvey, hey. No, it's not too late to call… I'm still up."_

Picking up the remote for the TV, he switched it on to a station playing an old movie he'd seen at least a dozen times and slid down on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest as he tried to block out her voice as he was sure she was agreeing to plans that Friday.

Though he couldn't hear anything being said from her room over the TV, he flopped down onto his side on the couch, pulling the pillow around to cover his ears and thrashed around uncomfortably as his mind tormented him with how she'd so eagerly answered the phone when it was Harvey calling –yet she couldn't find the time to answer his own call earlier that day.

He felt like something had been stolen from him, an aching in his chest that left his body trembling almost pitifully. In many ways he felt like Bird was all he had.  
For years they'd spent time together every single day, having her around him was like a ray of sunlight in an otherwise shadowed and grayscale world. Clutching the pillow tighter around his head he tried to convince himself that it was silly to let this be affecting him so bad, not only had the date not even happened yet –he'd ordered himself many times to not think of her that way.

It was infuriating for him; he had the strongest resolve out of anyone he knew. Yet, he just couldn't find the will within himself to stop the thoughts of her that always creeped into his mind no matter the time of day.

It was like an infection he couldn't stop, festering and spreading every single second. If only he knew of a way to put to stop to how he felt, he'd cut that part out of him and spare himself the grief it caused.

* * *

 **A/N- So I didn't plan on updating again so quickly, but figured I'd take advantage of the internet while I can. lol  
**

 **Hope you guys all liked the chapter. ^_^**

 **Thank you so much to my bestie Miss E Charlotte for reading, reviewing and being just as freaking excited for this story as I am. You don't know how much that means to me! xx**

 **I also want to thank the guest who reviewed as well!**


	7. Lady Wayne

**VII**

 _"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu  
_

* * *

Leaned up against the headboard of Bird's bed, Oswald repeatedly opened and closed the switchblade knife as he watched her sleep beside him.

It had been more than a few hours since she'd had a nightmare that was apparently bad enough that she'd thrown herself from the bed in her sleep. The thud had immediately woke him up from where he'd been sleeping on the couch and after grabbing an iron poker from next to the fireplace and stubbing a toe on his bad leg, he'd scrambled into her room where he found her thrashing around next to her bed trying to get her top sheet and blanket untangled from her body.

He would have tried to help her, but it wasn't until he was sure she was safe that the intense pain from his accidental collision with the coffee table hit him full force and all he could manage to do was hobble over to the foot of her bed while repeatedly groaning at the throbbing pain –of course, he thought, of course he'd have to further damage his already injured leg while she continued to struggle to break free of her tangled fabric mess.

Rubbing his tired eyes, he realized it had to be about an hour since she'd flailed her legs in her sleep and woke him up when she kicked him. He knew she was already prone to having nightmares, but he had no idea what was haunting her mind that night –whatever it was; it was almost enough to make him go back to the couch and leave her to fight it on her own. But like the good friend he considered himself to be to her, he wanted to stay there in case she startled herself awake again.

He'd been absentmindedly playing with the knife since he discovered it while snooping through the nightstand on the side of the bed he was sleeping in. He'd also found several bottles of pills in her name, most of the medication names he'd never heard of and a few small unlabeled bags of pills were also scattered around in the drawer.

To this day, he still had no idea what all she was taking but he swore almost every time he saw her she was taking another pill for something. A part of him wondered if she'd mixed something she shouldn't have and that what was making her dreams so intense that night. Of course, he knew better than to bring that up to Bird, she'd immediately get defensive and angry at him for going through her things.

He'd been thinking back to the earlier days of their friendship while he watched Bird restlessly toss and turn in her apparently tormented sleep state. When they'd first started talking about taking over Gotham City, now going on four years ago, he really wasn't sure if it was just a joke between them or if they were being serious.

For a while, it didn't seem to matter. Even if it had started as a joke, it was something they both needed. It had given her a reason to get out of the asylum and for him, it had been the start of at least somewhat healing from his years of torment.

His mother had always told him that he was clever and handsome, she'd never doubted he'd be someone. But that's what mother's were supposed to do, the good ones anyhow, so while it was a nice encouragement it wasn't until he realized Bird truly believed in him that he started to believe more in himself.

He didn't know if he believed in fate, mostly the world seemed a barely controlled chaos and at times the notion that everything happened for a reason wasn't plausible. He couldn't help but feel their crossing paths was no coincidence, most days he'd even say they were destined to meet that night in the ally.

Oswald often wondered where they'd both be if they'd never became friends. He figured that Bird would have probably been spending time in and out of institutions, back when they'd met she seemed to have no drive to actually leave the one she'd been placed in or maybe she'd have even folded to what her parents wanted and she'd be off at some Ivy League college right now. As for himself, he really had no idea what he'd be doing –maybe a career criminal or something similar.

He shook his head, such thoughts were nonsense. The ' _what ifs_ ' were a complete waste of time, not only was it implausible to go back and change anything, he wouldn't change a thing even if he was given the chance.

Now here they were, four years after meeting and so close to climbing to the top of the food-chain that he could just taste it already. Sure, there had been some setbacks along the way, but against all odds he'd overcome every single obstacle in his way and was steadily securing a trusted position with Don Carmine Falcone; so much so that Oswald was dangerously close to declaring himself Falcone's right hand man.

Closing the knife, he ran his thumbs over the smooth metal before he returned it to the bedside table and laid back down. Turning onto his side he faced her, watching her in the streetlight illuminated room, he wondered; if someone offered her the chance to change things –would she?

 **~(Flashback)~**

"Good luck with this one." The nurse stated with a tired look in her eyes as she nodded to the door and sighed, "Poor thing hasn't said a word to anyone in months."

"I'm familiarized with her case." Oswald curtly said before nodding politely in thanks to the nurse who'd shown him to the appropriate room, he waited until she turned to leave before he knocked on the door, a move which didn't elicit any response from the girl inside.

Not that it would, apparently he was the only one who'd heard her voice in months. He'd wondered how much of what she'd told him upon their chance meeting was the truth, then again he wasn't sure why she'd have motive to be dishonest with him. After all, she'd seen him kill someone and he had nothing on her.

His eyes drifted over to the name plate on the wall next to the door, in a fancy printed script it read ' _Starling Wayne_ '. It had been over a week since his encounter with the teenager in an ally after he'd killed someone. It had taken that long for him to devise a plan to get in to see her.

The large house turned institution was the most expensive mental health treatment facilities within the city –a retreat for Gotham's elite. Upon his first visit, he'd learned security was much thicker than he'd thought, which had only left him frustrated and wondering how she'd ever escaped from there in the first place.

He'd learned she wasn't allowed any visitors outside of her family, a fact he thought she must have known –leading him to wonder why if she'd wanted him to come see her why she hadn't mentioned that to him.

Though, in the end it apparently hadn't mattered because finding a way to her had became a bit of an obsession over the past week. He'd had everything in order for a couple of days now, the fake ID card associating him with the office her therapist worked from, a new briefcase to further sell the lie, along with the staffing schedules from the house. He wasn't going to risk his plan on getting recognized by the same receptionist as the first time he'd been there. Finally, her day off had came around and he'd paid a homeless woman he'd found on the street one hundred dollars to read from a paper he'd written on, a small script stating that her usual therapist was out sick and their office would be sending over one of his associates. Of course, a hundred dollars seemed rather steep a price to read a few short lines –but he was already too far into the plan to figure another way or waste more time trying to find someone else to play the part.

Slowly, he reached for the doorknob and opened the door completely. Staying where he was, he scanned the room, but didn't see Bird anywhere. Briefly he wondered if she'd escaped again, of course luck would have it that way. He finally got inside the institution and all of his time and money spent to see her would have been for nothing.

He could barely believe it when he'd learned the strange teenager was actually a member of the Wayne family –yet another fact she'd neglected to divulge to him. Oswald thought she must have kept that from him on purpose considering she seemed to have dumped close to her entire life story on him.

Walking into the room, his posture straightened as he felt someone else's prescience. He knew he was being watched and it wasn't a feeling he was fond of. His blue eyes were alert as he looked to see if she was hiding somewhere, soon enough his gaze drifted upwards to see her perched on the top of the tall, dark oak dresser against the side wall.

Her brown eyes were wide as she stared back at him, her dark hair looked to have not been brushed in at least a few days. Paired with the gray shirt and slightly darker sweatpants all of the patients were forced to wear, she looked like she belonged there.

Maybe despite appearing normal to him on their first meeting, there was still the chance she was genuinely crazy. His eyebrows furrowed slightly with the thoughts of how one could argue he was the crazy one, exhausting all of his time and effort into finding a way in to see a teenager he'd only met once before.

The pair stared at each other, leaving him all the more unnerved when she didn't move at all, she didn't even blink. It was a feeling Oswald wasn't used too, normally he'd be the one making someone else uncomfortable, it was something he actually got a satisfaction out of.

His head slightly cocked to the side with curiosity, wondering if she knew what she was doing. Could she easily tell he was slightly intimidated, was he that easy for her to read?

Pulling in a breath, he grew determined to not let it show. After all, what did he need to be nervous about? If anything, she should fear him –she had seen him kill someone after all.

Thinking about how he'd heard nothing but silence in her room and didn't see or hear any movement after he'd opened her door, he quickly realized she must have already been perched on top of the dresser –for whatever reason. It couldn't possibly be a comfortable stance to hold for very long.

"Bird." He greeted, finally finding his voice as he added, "How long have you been up there?"

As he turned around to close the door behind him, Bird silently jumped down and crossed the room without his knowledge. When he turned back around he made a startled noise, like the air had been forced from his chest and he fought against the urge to take a step back when he saw she had not only been right behind him, but she was standing unusually close to him, as if she had no concept of personal space.

He fought the urge to take a step back, he wasn't about to back down from a teenage girl. Though her stone expression made him wish he maybe hadn't closed the door to the room.

Quickly the stoic expression gave way to a wide smile, her eyes darted back and forth across his face as she said, "You always ask the right questions, anyone else would have asked _why_ I was up there."

She was so close he could smell the mint gum she'd been chewing on her breath and he swallowed hard, finding it a little hard to speak in such close proximity to her as he slightly struggled through his sentence, "Actually, I'm interested in the answer to both of those questions."

She smiled again, either happy to see him or enjoying how uncomfortable he was to the point where he could barely get a complete sentence out –he wasn't sure which one.

He guessed the latter when she made no attempt to back away from him as she gave the first answer to the question she'd been directly asked, "For quite some time."

Turning around and walking away from him she looked over her shoulder with the second part of her answer, "I like the element of surprise."

Finally able to completely fill his lungs with a breath when she gave him some space, he nodded despite her back being to him. Being of small stature himself, he was also prone to use the element of surprise to his advantage.

"Hello Oswald." She gave her greeting further into the encounter than most others would have, but he didn't mind it much. Especially since she used his actual name and not the cruel nickname that had been bestowed upon him from childhood.

Taking a seat on the side of her bed, she tucked her legs up underneath her and admitted, "I was wondering if you were ever coming to visit me."

"Well, you didn't exactly make it easy." Oswald countered, as he moved a chair closer to her and sat down facing her, "You must know you're not allowed any visitors."

"I do." She nodded, "But you're clever, I knew if you wanted to see me badly enough you'd find a way."

His eyes narrowed slightly at her with the realization that she'd withheld so much information on purpose because she wanted him to have to work for a way in to see her and he'd played directly into her plan.

"Clearly, I'm not the only clever one." He conceded with a nod, as he looked back around her room, realizing how much he missed when he'd been looking for her.

The lamp from her bedside table was down on the floor and the small, decorative table was covered with shiny apples, nine of them to be exact. Three green, three red and three yellow, lined up in rows of three according to their color. On another table across the room she had shower supplies and lotion also lined up in rows of three bottles.

There was a sketch book on her desk with three charcoal pencils on top of it, he briefly wondered if she was any good at drawing. In fact, he had so many questions in his mind about her.

"Did you bring any food?" Bird questioned, seeming to be so close to the edge of the bed, she might topple off at any second.

"In exchange for my knife?" He questioned back, as he picked up the briefcase he'd brought and started to unlatch it.

"That is how a trade works." She simply answered, causing him to pause and shoot her an unamused look at her comment.

"I didn't know what to get you-"

"I'm not picky." She cut him off as she grabbed the bag from his hand and immediately unwrapped the burger and started to eat it like she'd never tasted food before.

"You're welcome." He stated as he cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows at her before commenting, "Good manners cost nothing, you know?"

Ignoring his remark she fished a bottle of water from the drawer on her nightstand and took a drink before asking him, "Do you know what they fed me for lunch today?"

He shook his head back and forth.

"Some sort of broth with herbs and a salad." She scoffed, shaking her head back and forth, "Holistic healing meal plan, my ass. They're trying to starve me… they don't even have the kind of dressing I like-"

Not sure how long she was going to carry on with her complaints about the food she'd been served, Oswald cut her off as he asked, "My knife?"

"Is that the only reason you came to see me?" Bird questioned, as she finished off the last of the burger and stuffed the wrapper back into the bag before pulling out the container of French fries. As she looked back up at him with a disappointed look in her eyes, he wasn't sure of what answer to give her.

On one hand, he'd been thinking about her since they met –how he'd never met anyone like her before and strangely enough he already considered her a friend. On the other hand, he didn't like being manipulated and so far he just seemed to play into her every plan.

"I don't have an answer for that." He admitted, prompting her to quickly ask him why.

"I'm still trying to make my mind up about you."

"It shouldn't be that hard." She shrugged, "I'm just me –either you like me or you don't." Her eyes narrowed in a sudden anger as she snapped, "I thought we were friends."

He stared at her, blinking a few times with an almost blank expression on his face at how quick to anger she was considering he'd done everything she'd wanted and in his eyes he'd done nothing capable of earning such a response from her.

Even though this was only their second time of speaking with one another, he already couldn't stand the feeling of her being angry with him, nor could he cope with the disappointed look on her face she'd given him before snapping.

"We are friends." He spoke with an honesty in his tone.

The look on her face revealed she didn't entirely believe him now, "So you're not just here to take your knife and leave to where I'd never see you again?"

His eyes dropped to the floor in thought, like he was really considering the option, but he was trying to figure out how to answer the question to where she'd believe him and they could move past her short temper and harsh stare.

"You've been on my mind since we first met." He admitted to her, "I'm not only here to retrieve what's mine –I came to see you."

His eyes met hers as he looked back up and added, "As for never seeing you again; I don't think I could stay away if I tried. Friends are hard to come by."

"How many friends do you have?" Bird asked, the stone expression back on her face as she stared him down like she already knew the answer, but was going to force him to say it anyways.

"Currently, just you." His teeth clenched with the admission. It was demeaning to have to say out loud, to admit to another person how short his supply of friends were.

Her dimples showed as she smiled at the newly learned news, "Good."

"I hardly think it's good." He argued, shaking his head in disbelief at her. One minute she'd be nice to him and the next make some comment that made it hard for him to have control over his own anger.

"If you don't have anyone else you're not likely to leave me." Her words came with a shrug like it was only a passing thought, but pain was apparent in her voice.

"Why would I leave you?" He questioned, surprised such a thought would carry any weight with her. They hardly knew each other and for someone like her –beautiful and coming from one of Gotham City's wealthy one-percent, it couldn't be hard for her to find friends.

Now, finished with the meal, Bird crumpled up the bag with her trash and tossed it across the room where it landed perfectly in the small trash bin. Avoiding his eyes she explained, "Some people don't think I'm worth sticking around for."

"That's difficult to believe." He replied, earning a small smile from him as she countered, "That's kind, but apparently not everyone feels that way.

"My birth parents for example."

His eyes met hers for a fleeting second before she looked away, and he realized out loud, "The Wayne's adopted you?"

He sighed in frustration when she didn't offer up any further information. Something he was getting accustomed to from her. Bird would say just enough to get his attention, just enough details to make him want to know more, but she never gave up the full story. It was clear she preferred to be shrouded in mystery.

Maybe in time she'd grow to trust him enough to tell him everything. Oswald hoped that would be the case, even so early in their friendship he was starting to find the idea of not seeing her anymore unacceptable. She had him where she'd always wanted someone, infatuated to the point that they couldn't leave her even if they wanted too –which he didn't.

She had him and he knew it now, that he wouldn't be able to walk away from her.

"I'm not going anywhere." He assured her, "I wouldn't leave you."

"In for the long run?" She asked with a playfulness to her tone; a welcomed relief from the angst just moments before.

"I suppose I am." Oswald smiled, wondering if he was the only one who felt that way. Bird might have been the one fearing she wasn't enough for someone to stick around, but he was starting to worry she might be the one who wouldn't stick around. After all, she was a Wayne and what was he?

"Good." She smiled wider, "As of right now, you're the only one I'd call a friend as well."

His eyebrows lowered as he said, "You must have other friends."

"I haven't been to school in months." She admitted, tucking her tangled hair behind her ear as she blew out a breath and explained, "I have many acquaintances. People who want to be my friend because of my last name, but if they knew the real me… even the Wayne name wouldn't be enough for them to stick around."

"Alright." He slowly nodded, "Who are you, really?"

Ignoring his question, she countered with one of her own, "Why don't you have any friends?"

With a small shrug, he straightened up in his chair some and seemed rather uncomfortable with the question. A tense silence filled every corner of the room until he finally acknowledged the truth with a shrug, "I suppose I never really had any friends. Even in my schoolyard days. The very concept of friendship always seemed to elude me. I was never shown an ounce of kindness."

"They picked on you…" She realized, her voice soft as she spoke and saw the pained look on his face despite his best efforts to hide it.

"Bullies." He mumbled under his breath.

The room drifted back into a silence before Bird cleared her throat and spoke in a slightly trembling voice, "I went through something… something horrible."

"I know." He cut in when she paused, "You told me you hadn't spoken a word in sixth months –once I learned who you were, I went back and read the newspapers for that time."

"Yeah?" She scoffed, "Believe me, it was worse than what they put in the papers."

"Anyways." She breathed, waving a dismissive hand clearly not wanting to rehash anything she'd been through, "I have mandatory one-on-one therapy four times a week and according to my pill-pushing therapist, what affected me the most out of what happened… wasn't being raped, or even being shot and left for dead. I was told that the biggest life changing impact that entire night had on me was how I felt completely, and utterly powerless."

Letting her words sink in for a moment, she pulled in a deep breath and admitted, "At first I thought he was crazy, but the more time that passes… I don't know, I think he might have a point. It wasn't what was done to my body that broke me… it's what the whole situation did to me here." She pointed to the side of her head to get the point across.

His eyebrows raised as he looked at her, he had to admit what she was saying made sense.

"I have a plan." Bird said, a smile beaming on her face as she spoke, "When I get out of here, I'm going to start taking classes. Boxing, self-defense, martial arts… any kind of class I can find and enroll in. I'm going to turn myself into a living weapon so I know that no one can ever hurt me like that again. I won't ever be that weak –that defenseless again."

"That's a good plan." Oswald agreed, though he was still slightly taken aback by everything she'd just told him.

"What do you want?" She asked, as she readjusted on the edge of her bed with her legs tucked farther up underneath her, patiently awaiting his answer.

"What I want is…" His voice trailed off as he weighed the question in his mind. Since he was a child there was something he'd wanted more than anything else, "I want to be somebody."

His eyes locked with hers in an intense gaze as he dared to dream bigger than just making a name for himself, "I want to people to fear me… I want to be the King of Gotham."

"And I want to help you." Bird agreed, nodding as she added, "I want to be somebody too. Not just because of my last name, I want something for myself entirely separate from my family."

Oswald nodded, feeling a little lightheaded from not breathing since he'd admitted out loud that he wanted to be a king. Despite the already deep and growing friendship between them –he'd still expected her to laugh at him. Say that someone like _him_ would never be a king of anything; let alone Gotham City. But she didn't, from what he could tell she fully seemed to accept it and believe they could make it happen.

Watching as he pulled in what seemed to be few frantic breaths, Bird thought to herself that in so many ways they were similar. Deep down they both just wanted to overcome what life had thrown their way and be something greater than they felt they ever could, they wanted to be powerful.

"Penguin." She stated, her voice calm as she tested the waters.

His eyes cut to hers and she didn't miss the slight twitch of anger in one of them as he hissed, "Don't call me that!"

"Why not?" She questioned, an innocent tone to her voice, but he suspected she had a more sinister motive behind it. Surely, to tear him down after making him feel like she believed in him.

"You know why." He sharply answered, the blood red feeling of rage starting to swell behind his eyes. He didn't want to hurt her, but even hearing the name spoken in her voice made him feel like he could come unhinged at any moment.

Reaching for his coat, which he'd draped over the back of his chair he started to stand up –thinking it was best to get out of there, away from her before he did something he'd surely regret once the anger passed.

"I wasn't poking fun at you." Bird said, her words causing him to stop walking away, though he left his back to her.

"If we're going to do this, really take over Gotham than you can't snap every time someone calls you Penguin. You have to be more stable than that. What I think is-" Her words were simple, but struck a nerve in him and he didn't even let her finish speaking.

Spinning around, his eyes narrowed at her as he pointed an accusatory finger in her direction and harshly said, "You're locked away in an asylum. People think you're crazy… yet, you're telling me _I_ need to be more stable? Can you not clearly see the fault in that logic?"

Standing up from the side of the bed, she ignored the pins and needles stinging numbness that resulted from her sitting with her legs folded underneath her too long as she slowly walked towards him. Her steps so light and fluid she almost appeared to be gliding across the floor as her eyes narrowed to match his and she spoke the word he despised the most out of the entire English language, "Penguin."

"Stop it!" He warned, as she moved even closer, her lips parted again and he knew what she was going to say even before the word left her mouth.

"Penguin."

His mouth hung open with his labored breathing, trying to see through the rage building up inside of him, but it was becoming increasingly hard to do so.

"Penguin –"

She'd barely gotten the word out before he'd moved so fast it surprised the both of them, and with a hand on her throat he'd backed her against the nearest wall.

"I warned you to stop." He bitterly shushed her, applying enough pressure to her neck that it made breathing slightly painful for her. He wasn't sure what she was up to, but he certainly wasn't in need of a friend so desperately that he'd put up with being taunted from the one person he'd opened up to.

Clearly, she'd tired of the back and forth too. A fact she made abundantly clear when she retrieved his switchblade knife from her pocket and flipped it open, pressing the blade against the front of his throat as she choked out, "You didn't let me finish."

Releasing the pressure he'd had on her neck, he kept his hand on her as they both stared at each other –trying to determine how serious of a threat the other one posed. Sure, Bird had the weapon, but Oswald wasn't entirely sure she'd have the stones to actually use it against him. Then again he wasn't willing to bet on it either.

"Why?" He questioned, finally dropping his hand and taking a step back from her, "Why pretend to be a friend one minute then taunt me within the next?"

Closing the knife she slid it back into her pocket and rubbed her throat, speaking in a strained voice, "I am your friend. If you didn't fly into a blind rage and had let me finished what I was saying, this entire thing could have been avoided."

"The floor is all yours." He breathed.

"I wasn't taunting you, I was proving a point." Bird stated flatly, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him as she added, "I get that it hurts when someone calls you that, but guess what? People aren't going to stop, it sucks but the nickname stuck and it's going to follow you your entire life no matter what you're the king of."

He stared back at her, the fire burning brighter in his eyes as he wondered what the hell was wrong with her. If that's what she'd intended on saying the entire time, he wished he'd crushed her voice-box before she got the chance.

"But it's okay." She continued, still rubbing her neck as she walked over to her desk and poured some ice water from the pitcher into a glass and quickly drank it down.

He stayed in the same spot, but slowly turned in place to watch her as she passed by him on the way to the desk. Okay? She thought that was okay? He couldn't see how any of that was the least bit okay.

"Do you remember when we first met-"

"How could I forget?" He countered.

Sighing she ignored him, "I told you that I started going by Bird just to spite my mom because of the stupid 'her little songbird' nickname?"

He nodded.

"Well?" She asked, her voice high pitched as she waved her hands out to the side, like she was trying to lead him to understand what she was getting at –but he was still stuck on the fact that she'd not only called him Penguin but told him he'd never be rid of the name.

"Well, what?" He questioned, "I'm growing tired of this."

Rubbing her forehead, she asked, "Do you want to be Penguin? Or do you want to be _The_ _Penguin_?"

"I…" His voice trailed off, before his nose wrinkled and he argued, "I don't much care for either."

Stepping closer to him, she asserted, "You want to be The Penguin. Just think about it, one day when we're on the top of Gotham's food-chain, the same name people used to use against you will be a name that strikes fear to their core."

"You really think it's achievable? We'd have to do away with both Falcone and Maroni, overthrow the empires they've built. We're starting from nothing here." He was no longer sure what to think of Bird, just when he'd really started to trust her before he felt like she'd turned on him.

"What I think is that if you can take this nickname that has caused you so much pain since you were a child, and own it –turn it into a source of strength… then I think you can do anything."

Her tone seemed honest enough and despite growing up being told by his mother on many occasions that he couldn't trust anyone –he believed her.

"I also think if you ever put your hands on me like that again-" Retrieving the knife from her pocket and flipping it open to really drive her point home, "I will stick this right through the center of one of those pretty blue eyes. Understand?"

His eyes widened slightly at how her voice could sound so calm and almost innocent while she threatened him –if she was bluffing, she gave no indication of it.

"Suffice it to say that I acted hastily, without giving much thought to my actions." He admitted, accepting his part of blame in the situation without apologizing for his actions, looking back he saw how everything could have been handled smoother. Though she had to have known what kind of a response her repeated use of the name he hated would earn her.

"We can't be like that, not with each other. All relationships are built on trust and that has to be true for us if we're going to take over Gotham together."

"Agreed." He nodded, all while wondering inside if he was even capable of trusting another human being, besides his own mother. Maybe he'd just been hurt too much by too many people to ever actually trust someone now.

Even so, he was rapidly realizing he wanted her in his life, perhaps even enough so that he'd be willing to try and put his trust in her. Trusting one another would mean they couldn't part ways with each other knowing all the other's secrets and plans. After that, if they turned on each other there could possibly be a fight to the death. Eyeing her he hoped if it ever came down to that, then it would be before she turned herself into a weapon like she'd talked about earlier.

He must be a true cynic he thought, already imagining the end of their friendship before it truly began.

"Good." She beamed, "As a show of faith from you, I'm keeping the knife."

Patting her pocket she added, "I know it's the only thing tying you to a crime, but you shouldn't worry because I bleached it several times and then polished it. It's even more shiny now, it's perfect."

His mouth hung slightly open as he stared at her. Every time he started to believe and trust her, she twisted something around and made him feel like she'd manipulated him in some way and he was just there to play into her plan. Oswald also couldn't help but wonder where she'd even get her hands on bleach or polish in a place like that, but he knew where there was a will there was a way –and Bird seemed like a very determined person.

"You were never going to give it back, were you?" He realized.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I love it too much." She admitted, her eyes taking on that slightly crazed look she'd been wearing the night he met her in the ally.

"Why?" He asked cautiously, "There's nothing special about it… probably a million identical knives out there, just like that one." He pointed to her pocket and stepped closer as he spoke.

"I sometimes form deep and unhealthy attachments to inanimate objects, they can't disappoint me and leave me like people can." She blurted out, taking a step backwards as she defensively covered the opening to the pants pocket with her hand.

His eyebrows raised and he stifled a laugh at her reaction and words he could only guess came from her therapist at some point. The corner of his mouth twitched, threatening to turn upwards into a smile.

She might have made him almost come undone by using the name Penguin against him, but apparently all he had to do was threaten to take an object she liked away and he could get under her skin. His eyes drifted back around the room to the all the rows and sets of three items she had lined up. If he had to take a guess, he'd bet she'd probably also get frantic if he moved those around.

Slowly taking another step closer to the teenager, he couldn't help but smile when she backed away even further and said, "I'm not kidding. You're not taking this knife away from me, it's shiny and it's perfect and it's mine."

"Okay." He laughed, holding his hands up in surrender as he said, "It's yours."

She breathed a visible sigh of relief and her shoulders relaxed some from the tense pose she'd struck when he advanced forward. She wasn't the only one who felt a sense of calmness now. The playing field seemed more level to him –he not only knew how to get under her skin now, but was starting to get a glimpse at her life, beyond the things she told him.

It wasn't much later that there was a knock at the door, and the pair looked over as the door opened and a nurse walked in, wearing a friendly smile as she displayed a clear plastic disposable medicine cup containing several pills and said, "Miss Wayne, time for your evening meds."

She nodded to Oswald politely before crossing the room and handing the medicine cup to Bird, who poured the contents into her mouth without protest and held out her hand for the cup of cold water to wash them down.

Finishing the water, Bird handed the cup back and opened her mouth to show she hadn't kept any of the pills in her mouth.

"Good girl." The nurse smiled, before respectfully saying, "Thank you."

Just as she reached the doorway to the room, Bird said, "You're welcome."

The clipboard she'd been writing on fell from her hand onto the floor with a loud noise against the linoleum floor as she spun around and gasped, "Miss Wayne?"

Oswald turned his face to the side to hide the laugh he was fighting against at the look on the woman's face.

"I'm feeling much better." Bird smiled, "If it isn't too much trouble I'd like to take a shower a little later and call my parents after that?"

"Oh, o-of course…" the nurse replied with a still stunned expression on her face.

"Thank you." Bird replied, barely able to hold back a laugh as the nurse scrambled out of the room, leaving her clipboard behind on the floor.

"Can't take over Gotham from inside these walls." Bird said with a grin.

Smiling back at her, he pointed out, "You realize this could take years to play out? It's a long road ahead of us."

With the smile never leaving her face, she shrugged, "Still beats wasting away in here."

 **~(End of flashback)~**

"Lady Wayne." Alfred greeted with a smile as he passed Bird in a downstairs hallway of Wayne Manor.

"Alfred." She sighed, coming to stop to face him, "I've been moved out for nearly two years now, please… call me Bird."

"Ah, right you have!" He exclaimed pointing a finger at her, "Two years living outside of the walls of Wayne Manor –so imagine my surprise to find a sink full of used cooking utensils and baking sheets in the sink just mere days ago."

Nodding she explained, "I had some baking I needed to do."

"Yes, but seeing as how you no longer reside here. If you're going to be preparing food here, clean up after yourself."

With a smile pulling at a single corner of her mouth, Bird shook her head back and forth, "You're the butler. It's your job to tidy things up."

"And what's next? Hmm?" He asked, "Going to start dropping your laundry off to be washed weekly? Perhaps even tote your own dirty dishes here to be properly cleaned?"

"Point taken." She replied, shaking her head as she added, "It was just one time!" For a butler who'd once served in the British Special Air Service, she swore he was one of the most dramatic men she'd ever met.

With a smile he said, "Just as well. It's nice to see you Lady Wayne-"

"Bird." She corrected.

"When you sprout feathered wings and a beak to match, then and only then will I call you a bird."

Laughing she breathed, "Oh my god… Alfred if I start sprouting feathers we'll have bigger problems than what name you refer to me as."

"Indeed we would." He agreed, "I'll let Master Bruce know you're here."

"Thanks, I just need to grab something from my old room real fast." She lied, before continuing on her journey to the master bedroom of the mansion –the room that used to be her parents and had remained untouched since they day they'd been killed.

After retrieving what she'd come to the house for, she made her way back downstairs where she found Detective Gordon in her father's office with Alfred.

"I didn't know you were here." Bird said, offering the detective a small smile as she made her presence known.

"Hey." He greeted, keeping his eyes locked on her in a hard stare for a couple of moments. It was just a few days prior that Bird had sworn to him that Oswald wasn't back in Gotham –then just the prior night he'd shown up at Barbara's apartment.

"Yes, seems the place to be tonight, doesn't it?" Alfred questioned, looking around the dim lighting and flame brightened room with the walls lined ceiling to the floor with built in bookcases.

Realizing that Bird might also have helpful information on what he'd come there to find out, Jim looked between them as he admitted, "I was hoping you could help me… I need information on the Wayne plan for Arkham."

"Well…" Alfred breathed, "It's the Wayne plan, in name only now."

Seeing the confused look on Jim's face, Bird explained, "After my parents were killed, Falcone stepped in. He's backing the plan now."

"Why?" Jim asked, trying to fit the puzzle together.

"He's gonna make a lot of money if it passes." She stated, giving him a look like he should have figured that much out on his own.

Giving him an innocent smile, she questioned, "Why the sudden interest in Arkham, detective?" Despite the guiltless tone in her voice, he could see the look in her eyes –she knew full well that it was Oswald who'd clued him into how Arkham was at the center of the power struggle in Gotham. That war is just politics by other means and when it boiled down to it –politics was all about money.

Clearing his throat, Jim said, "Councilman Jenkins was murdered; we've got reason to believe it may be related to the Arkham plan."

Dropping his arms to his side he added, "But Jenkins was backing Falcone's plan."

"That's right…" Alfred agreed in a leading voice, trying to get the detective to put two-and-two together.

"Then he was killed because…" Jim asked, his voice trailing off as he suddenly felt like the only one in the room that wasn't privy to certain information.

"Because, detective… there is an opposing plan." Alfred answered and could practically see the light bulb ignite in Detective Gordon's head when he realized who else in Gotham had not only the means but the strength to go against Falcone.

"Maroni." Jim realized, "He's making a play at Arkham!"

"Are they related?"

The trio turned to see Bruce standing in the doorway to the room. "Bruce, how are you?" Jim questioned.

"Fine, thank you." He answered, looking around the room and wishing they hadn't gone silent when he'd appeared. Even he knew there was an ongoing power struggle between the Maroni Crime Family and the Falcone Crime Family –he was starting to believe it all tied in with his parents murders.

"Bloody rude to go sneaking about the house." Alfred lectured, but Bruce ignored the remark as he said, "My parents fought for years to get a new asylum built." In an almost distressed voice he looked to his older sister and asked, "Remember?"

"I know." She nodded, her voice soft as she spoke to him.

His socked feet lightly padded across the floor as he made his way to his father's desk and opened a drawer, after a few minutes of searching he located a folder and pulled a paper out.

Sitting down on the couch he quickly scanned the page before his eyes landed on the lines that had always stood out to him.

"A new Arkham Asylum will serve the mentally ill of Gotham in ways the present asylum never can. Those poor, sick souls deserve our help." He read aloud, pausing for a moment before raising his head and explaining, "My mother wrote that. My parents thought that if they could help the city's least fortunate that it would show there is hope for everyone."

Bird sat down beside her younger brother and laid a comforting hand on his arm as she nodded in agreement.

"I just… I don't want their dream to die with them. They wouldn't have wanted that." He continued pleading his case to the three people who would do anything for him, but this was a matter much bigger than them.

"I understand that, Bruce." Jim nodded, carefully sitting down on the couch across from the Wayne siblings as he tried to explain to the youngest, "But this isn't just about the asylum. If there is a fight between Falcone and Maroni, this could be the spark that ignites a city wide gang war."

Looking over at her brother Bird nodded, "There's already so much tension between the crime families, it's not going to take much for that to escalate. If that happens a lot of people are going to get caught in the crossfire."

"Innocent people?" Bruce gathered, looking to where she sat beside him.

Jim watched as Bird reached over and rubbed a hand over her brothers back, trying to comfort him the best she could. Even being a detective it was impossible for him to get a lock on her –he'd seen her as a teary face teenager who'd lost her parents, a hardened criminal with a coldness about her that chilled him to the bone and now here she sat being a loving sister to her little brother.

"Whatever little faith the people of Gotham have that the police can protect them… it will be crushed." Jim explained.

"So you have to stop it." Bruce stated, as if it were the simplest answer in the world.

Knowing he didn't understand how hard that task would actually be, Alfred stepped to the back of the couch and rested a hand on Bruce's shoulder while Jim pulled in a deep breath and leaned back in his seat. Ever since he'd learned that Bruce had been taking risks in an attempt to, for whatever reason, conquer fear and test himself; he'd been worried about him.

He felt like with every passing week came another failure on his own part, another way in which he'd let the youngest Wayne down.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something, his phone buzzed from inside his pocket and he excused himself to take the call. It was Bullock letting him know that another councilman had been abducted, only this time it was one of Maroni's men.

Ending the call Jim turned back to the group to inform them he needed to be leaving, but before he could Bird smirked at him as she asked, "I take it work summons?"

His eyebrows lowered as he saw the expression on her face, like she knew more about the call he'd gotten then he did.

"Yeah..." He breathed, before turning his attention to Bruce and apologizing for having to leave so quickly and assured him he'd check back in when he could.

Just as he started to leave, he heard Bird telling Alfred and Bruce that she also needed to be going. Stepping out of the room, he paused and waited on her –wondering what information, if any, she had about the attacks that had been happening.

Coming out of the room, Bird paused for only a brief second when she saw Jim waiting on her, before continuing on her way towards the front door leaving the detective to scramble after her.

"Another attack?" Bird guessed, glancing momentarily over her shoulder.

"An abduction…" Jim answered, "Councilman Zellars, he's on Maroni's payroll."

"Indeed he is." Bird agreed, as they reached the front door she smugly smiled at him as she added, "You'd better find him quick, Jim…"

Quickly catching up with her as she walked out of the door, he took hold of her arm to bring her to a stop as he questioned, "You know something, don't you?"

"I know that whatever is in store for Zellars won't be pretty. Think about it, Falcone's power is being tested by Maroni. He's probably going to make an example out of him, send a message." Bird replied simply with an indifferent shrug to match her tone.

"What kind of message?"

Crossing her arms over her chest, Bird arched an eyebrow as she scoffed, "Even if I knew something, why would I tell you?"

Seeing the look on his face, she laughed, "Oh… okay, I get it. You think we're on the same side here?"

"I'm not on anyone's side. I'm just trying to do my job." He assured her, still trying to ultimately get a read on the eldest Wayne sibling.

"Well I'm on whatever side guarantees I live to see another day… and that side certainly isn't working with anyone from the GCPD."

The coldness in her tone caught him slightly off guard, it was such a stark contrast to how gentle and caring she'd been with her little brother only mere moments before.

"I was glad to see you here." Jim said, looking around as he continued, "It's nice you're here for your brother, after all he's been through he needs-"

"Trying to appeal to my humanity?" Bird countered, not even letting him finish his sentence. An amused look fell over her face and she conceded, "Nice try."

He watched in silence as she opened the door to her car, looking back to him as she said, "My brother is fine."

"Is he?" Jim asked walking closer when she turned back to face him.

Pointing towards the roof of the her family's mansion, he explained, "We caught him on the edge of the roof the other day. Do you know he's been hurting himself; cutting and burning?"

"He's trying to test himself." Bird hissed defensively, "He wants to conquer fear."

"You say that like it isn't a bad thing." He observed, "Fear shows you where the edge is."

"Yeah, but it can also completely paralyze you. He watched our parents get murdered right in front of him and he had to feel completely powerless that night, and no, I don't think it's entirely a bad idea that he wants to change something to where he never has to be frozen in fear like that again." Waving a hand she did have to agree, "Even if he's going about it the wrong way."

"It's dangerous." Jim asserted, his eyes moving back and forth over her face as he spoke –trying to understand how she could possibly be okay with the things that had been happening.

"Life is dangerous." She shrugged, "Gotham City is dangerous… and as much as I'd love to be able to protect and shield Bruce from that, I can't. He's already seen the darkness of life, pure evil stared him in the face before it took his parents away and there is no going back from that. Maybe it's not such a bad idea that he wants to be stronger."

"Maybe you're right about some of it, or maybe he's just a kid that's seen far too much and this is a very self-destructive way of trying to cope. He might really benefit from talking to someone, trying to work past everything that's happened." Jim offered another solution, his mind drifting back to when he'd brought up therapy before and Alfred said no, that he was left very specific instructions on how to raise Bruce if Thomas Wayne died –and most of that involved letting the boy choose his own path.

"No therapists." Her words and crisp tone hung in the cold night air as she stared him down.

His head cocked slightly to the side as he thought of how those were the exact words Alfred had told him, "Don't you think it would at least be worth looking into? It could really help him."

"Maybe, if he got a good one…" Pulling in a deep breath she, tucked her hair behind her ears as she blurted out, "What if he ended up with one who thought the solution to everything came in a capsule. You know, a pill to help him sleep and another for energy to stay awake. One to cheer him up and then another to bring him down when they thought he was too cheerful. A pill for this and a pill for that until he ends up needing about ten different medications to make it through the day."

The stern expression he'd been wearing softened as he realized out loud, "You sound like you're speaking from personal experience."

Pulling in a deep breath and literally biting down on her tongue to make herself stop talking, she took a few seconds to pull herself together before she offered a smile and said, "Bruce is still sort of in shock from all that's happened, but he's a strong kid. He's trying to figure out how to exist in a world without the two people he loved the most in the world. He'll figure it out, it's just going to take some time –but he's fine."

Feeling like he'd already brought up painful memories for her, he nodded with a half-smile and chose to not say anything else as he watched her get in her car to leave.

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you so much for reading!  
**

 **I'd like to thank BloomingBlueMoon85 for reviewing a few chapters along the way and to SusieSamurai for your review that made me smile!** **Also a very special thank you to Miss E Charlotte for reviewing chapter 6 and always being so amazing and supportive!**

 **As always reviews are greatly appreciated. I always love hearing from my readers and your support means so much, especially lately because I'm starting to feel like no one is still reading this story. Haha.**


	8. Back to the Nest

**VIII**

 _"A friendship founded on business is a good deal; better than a business founded on friendship." - John D. Rockefeller_

* * *

Pulling a deep breath of the crisp evening air in between her nervously clenched teeth, Bird came to a stop outside of Fish Mooney's club. Today was the day she'd been both preparing for and dreading in equal measure.

Shaking her head back and forth, she turned to walk away. This sort of thing was more Oswald's area of expertise, as it was he was currently not only playing Don Falcone and Don Maroni; he was also working on pitting them further against each other so in the near future they'd begin to tear apart what the other had built.

Her best friend's ability to gain the trust of others, all while plotting their downfall amazed her. Sure, she could be manipulative when she needed too and she also held a treasure trove of secrets and intel in her mind that she'd break into to get what she wanted or save her life, but she was starting to doubt her ability to get back in Fish's good graces for the sole purpose of operating from behind enemy lines.

She considered physical strength and her fighting abilities to be her strong suit –not so much mind games.

It had to be done, she told herself. Someone needed to be keeping a close eye on Fish and privy to her plans to gain power. If Oswald could juggle keeping an eye on and manipulating both Falcone and Maroni, then surely she could play spy when it came to Fish. But there was a difference, Oswald couldn't care less about the people he was playing and she had a rather complicated relationship with the female crime boss.

After she was able to come home from the asylum Bird had been in, she'd asked her parents repeatedly who'd found her the night she'd been attacked, only neither of them wanted to tell her who it was. Only that they'd already sent thanks to the responsible party and she needn't worry about it.

After some digging and asking the right people the right questions, she'd learned that it had been Fish Mooney who'd found her and gotten her help.

It was perfect, Oswald told her upon learning the news; he saw it as a way into the Falcone crime family. If they'd walked in off the street, it would be nearly impossible to gain any sort of recognition, if anything they'd seem suspicious. But if Bird walked into the club to thank her for saving her life and managed to hit it off with Fish, then it would be a foot in the door.

Bird didn't believe it would work at the time, she was sure this crime boss working for Falcone would take one look at her seventeen year old self and send her away –especially when she had no choice but to leave straight from school and go there, meaning she'd showed up in her private school uniform. She'd never felt so out of place in her entire life, but by some miracle things fell into place that day and within the next few months she hung around the club more and more, picking up odd jobs and just making her presence known.

Over a year and a few missing umbrella boys later, both she and Oswald were not only working for Fish but were also highly trusted members of her staff.

Now here she stood, just weeks away from turning twenty and she was more nervous about stepping foot inside of the club than the first time she'd ever been there. But there was no one else to do this, it had to be her. Oswald had betrayed Fish in such a way that once she found out he was alive she wouldn't rest until he was dead.

Taking another deep breath in an attempt to calm herself, she walked back up to the door and pulled it open before she had another chance to talk herself out of it.

She looked at the waiter behind the bar, who raised his hand in a small wave before going about his business and Bird offered him a smile as she set off on her way to find Fish.

When she couldn't find her anywhere downstairs, Bird started up the stairs and headed for the main office room. The door was closed and it took her several seconds to finally gain the courage to knock.

"Yes?"

Taking in another deep breath, Bird opened the door to see Fish and Butch Gilzean inside.

"Bird." He greeted with a confused expression, before quickly looking to his boss to gauge her reaction.

"Hey Butch." She greeted back with an almost weak smile before she cleared her throat and slightly lowered her head as a sign of respect when she added, "Fish."

The room remained silent, making Bird all the more uncomfortable and hoping to fill the empty space she continued, "I was hoping we could talk… if you have the time of course."

After what felt like an eternal minute, Fish nodded for Butch to leave them to talk.

Once the door was shut to the room and the younger woman seated across the desk from her, Fish eyed her inquisitively, "Bird, what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize, for both the way I reacted when I found out that Oswald had been killed and also for it taking such a long time for me to build up the nerve to come back here." She tried to keep her breathing level and appear calm, "I was embarrassed and ashamed, I let my emotions cloud my judgement."

"And here I thought you were done with me." Fish said, her eyes narrowed slightly as she thought of how long it had been since she'd last seen her.

"No." Bird assured her, "In so many ways you've been like a mother to me, if you hadn't taken me under your wing years ago… I honestly don't know where I'd be today."

"Yes." Fish agreed, leaning back in the plush office chair as she took in the sight of her lost bird that had managed to find her way back to the nest, "I still remember the first day you came here, to my club. You had that deer in the headlights look on your face, you were practically shaking with nerves."

Bird let out a small laugh as she nodded in complete agreement as she also remembered back to that day, which now felt like an entire lifetime ago.

"I knew then there was something special about you. A fire inside, I could see it in your eyes, that you wanted it all; money, power, respect and then some." Fish added.

"Of course, all my life I'd been told to follow the rules and then there you were… making your own rules, ordering people around and they listened as if what you said was the law." Bird remembered, "I left here thinking that I wanted to be just like you one day."

"And I knew you'd be back then." Fish shrugged, "This last time you walked out, I wasn't so sure."

"I wasn't either." She swallowed hard as she spoke, "I just… I lost so much at once. My parents death came out of nowhere and then I found out Oswald had not only been killed –but he was a rat; all that time I considered him a close friend and he'd been snitching to the GCPD? It makes me sick to think he fooled me like that… really made me question so much about my life and the people in it."

"Oh, baby girl… he had us all fooled." Fish agreed, shaking her head in disbelief as she spoke, "He betrayed both of us."

"I see that now. With the time that's passed I can see everything so much more clearly."

Despite the almost stone expression the crime boss wore, Bird could tell her plan was working. As for now, while Fish still believed that Oswald was dead –she'd have no real reason not to trust her again. After all, it would appear that with both her parents and closest friend gone, that she didn't have many people left that she cared about or trusted, so it would make perfect sense that she'd come crawling back.

"I brought you something." Bird spoke as she took her purse off her shoulder and removed a deep burgundy crushed velvet jewelry box, large enough to hold a necklace, "A present."

Sliding the box across the desk Bird offered up a smile as Fish picked the box up, taking her time to feel the expensive coating under her fingers before slowly opening it to reveal a gorgeous two band platinum necklace, fixated with what looked to be at least three hundred small round diamond side stones lining both. In between the bands were six medium sized blue sapphires, each surrounded by several pear shaped diamonds all leading up to where a seventh vivid sapphire weighing in at twenty-eight carets was hanging, adorned with even more diamonds.

Bird's smile grew as she saw the gift had rendered her boss completely speechless.

"Oh my…" Fish breathed, trailing her fingers across the brilliant cut gem stones, "It's beautiful."

Raising her head and looking at Bird, she questioned, "Did you buy this or steal it from someone?"

"It was my mothers." Bird admitted, her jaw tensing slightly as she spoke.

It was the truth, the necklace had belonged to her mother and the day before when she'd dropped by Wayne Manor it had been with the intention of taking it from her mother's jewelry box. It was a genius idea she thought to herself, as she pushed the guilt aside from stealing from her dead mother, it was a genius idea because a gift like that would mean more to Fish than something she'd bought on her own. It should have meaning enough that it would quickly return her to good standing.

"I take it you want to come back?" She asked the younger woman.

"I can't see myself anywhere else." Bird replied.

There were a few beats of dead silence in the room, enough for doubt to start creeping up in Bird's mind, before a smile appeared on Fish's lips as she said, "Thank you for the gift. I'm glad you're back where you belong."

 **~()~**

Any trace of guilt that she had been feeling over stealing her mother's jewelry or manipulating Fish Mooney had seemed to give way to an almost perverse feeling of satisfaction that Bird felt after knowing she'd gotten her spot back alongside the crime boss.

Maybe she should have felt bad about what she'd done, she figured most people in her position probably would –but knowing that Fish was someone who didn't forgive or trust easily left Bird feeling a sense of giddiness in her stomach that her plan had gone off without a hitch. She knew she'd pulled off something that not many others could have and for that she was proud of herself.

When she'd first learned Oswald was still alive and that their long awaited plan of taking over Gotham City was still on, she'd really had her doubts about their ability to pull it off, but the past couple of days had gone almost flawlessly.

It was just the day before that the low-level thieves she'd put Oswald in touch with had robbed Maroni's restaurant, they'd killed the current manager and made off with all but one of the bags of money being counted at the restaurant that day –the plan had played out perfectly.

It was just a few hours before that she'd gotten a call from her friend letting her know that, as he'd predicted, the move had installed Maroni's trust in him enough so that he'd been promoted to manager.

Bird knew that meant soon enough, he'd admit the truth to Don Maroni about who he really was and then she'd have to be the one to tell fish that he was still alive, so she wouldn't lose her boss's trust. That day would come soon enough, she was sure of that –but for today she wasn't going to let those thoughts haunt her. Today was another win for their cause, another giant step closer to overthrowing Falcone from the top of his empire and doing away with Maroni, one step closer to ruling Gotham.

After fixing a drink for both herself and Fish at the bar, she walked back to the table she'd been sitting at just in front of the stage. As usual, Butch stood beside Fish and the trio watched as a young woman took the stage, Bird guessed they were probably about the same age, couldn't be more than a handful of years separating them.

The nameless girl started singning a rendition of Spellbound to the soft piano music that played as the soft glittering lights from above danced off the walls in the club. She wore a skin tight dark shirt with a blue mini skirt with fishnet tights underneath; her minimal jewelry was a contrast to the thick shimmery blue eyeshadow above and below her eyes. Dark, unkempt waves framed her face and it was clear by her arms laying stiff at her sides that she was uncomfortable on the stage.

"She's got a good voice." Butch commented with an indifferent shrug.

"Yeah, but not much stage presence." Bird argued, her head cocked to the side as she looked over the woman with scrutinizing eyes, "She's either really nervous or bored as hell."

With a wave of Fish's hand, the music cut off and the girl stopped singing in the middle of her line.

"What's your name?" Fish questioned.

Her eyes slightly squinted in the harsh lighting as she said, "Liza."

Taking a sip of her martini, Fish trailed a finger down the long stem of the glass as she asked, "How long have you been singing Liza?"

"Not long." Liza admitted, bringing her arms to the front as she fiddled with her dark threaded bracelet and her eyes darted between the trio who all stared up at her.

"You like boys or girls?"

Seeming almost taken aback by the question, Liza answered, "Boys…"

"So?" Fish replied, speaking as she moved her hand out to the side and added, "You want the job or what?"

Liza paused, giving some thought to the question as she wasn't sure what she'd be agreeing to. "Well… you haven't told me what the job is yet."

"You want to be a woman with power, money and respect –like me?" Fish asked, growing more intrigued with the young woman, who's hour glass figure was hugged tightly in her dark clothes. A better hairstyle and an upgraded wardrobe and she was thinking Liza could be a nice fit for what the job required.

"I guess." Liza responded to the latest question. She watched as Bird cocked her head to the side like she didn't believe her answer. When she saw Fish look over to the girl beside her, Liza cleared her throat and spoke with more conviction, "Yeah."

"Are you willing to do whatever it takes to have it all?"

This time her tone was true and steady as she spoke directly into the microphone, "Yes, I am."

With a smile that seemed anything but friendly, Fish explained, "That's the job."

Liza blinked a few times in disbelief at the news. The statement was spoken in such a way that it was the answer to all her questions, but in truth it only left her with more.

"Seduce me." Fish ordered.

Caught off guard and shaken from her thoughts, Liza laughed, "What?"

"You think I'm kidding?" Fish asked, with no traces of humor in her tone.

Liza's laughter dried up when she saw the looks on everyone's faces and realized Fish wasn't joking in the slightest. She still wasn't sure what all the job entailed or even if she really wanted it –but she descended the stairs slowly, one at time with her hips swaying from side to side; causing her mini-skirt to slide up on her legs dangerously high. She was all too aware of how her every stiletto clad step echoed through the silent room like claps of thunder, and she did her best to ignore the almost violating feeling of three sets of eyes glued to her.

Liza kept her eyes on Fish Mooney, making sure to make the crime boss feel like the only one in the room or at the very least the only one deserving of her attention. Slowly she leaned on the table, facing Fish as she leaned in her closer; trailing a hand down the side of her face to the front of her neck before leaning in and pressing her mouth against Fish's mouth as she moved her lips hungrily, like she just couldn't get close enough to the older woman.

Finally, she pulled back, a pleased hum on her lips as she kept eye contact with her and reached a swooping hand down to pick up her martini glass. Raising it to her lips, she swallowed what was left down in one drink. Letting the warmth fully set on her stomach, before returning the glass and standing up to walk away.

Looking over her shoulder she saw Liza had taken a seat at the bar, Fish looked between Butch and Bird with the intention of asking what they thought of Liza, but before she could a familiar face walked into the room.

Smiling widely at the detective, Fish watched as Bullock glanced at Liza, "See you something you like?" Fish questioned.

Looking back to her his own smile grew as he assured her, "I do now."

Butch headed to the bar where Liza was sitting to take down some information from her since they were strongly considering hiring her to use as their secret weapon against Falcone.

When Fish signaled for Bullock to follow her over to a booth so they could talk, Bird stood up and started towards the bar with the intention to take inventory of their stock of alcohol. Bird figured jumping right back into work and her old responsibilities was the best way to go about things. After all, everyone was used to her practically being a fixture at the club and no one thought twice about discussing business in front of her –if there was one thing she'd learned from Oswald, it was how helpful the gathering of information could be.

"Bullock." Bird greeted as she passed the detective.

Side-eyeing her, he replied with a nod and the nickname he'd designated for her, "Crazy eyes."

He held back at a laugh as she came to a stop momentarily, before letting out a sigh and shaking her head as she continued on without arguing with him.

 **~(The next day)~**

Walking down the long, dimly lit hallway in the apartment building, Bird checked the folded up piece of paper from her jacket pocket to make sure she was heading for the right apartment number.

Reaching the correctly numbered door, she raised her hand and knocked and waited for the person inside to come to the door.

"Hey…" Liza breathed as she opened the door and eyed Bird, "You're early…"

"It's Friday." Bird stated, seeing the confused look on the other womans face, she added, "I have an important date tonight so we need to get everything done as fast as possible."

"Come in." Liza curtly said, holding the door open to her apartment and watching as Bird walked in.

It was just the night before that she'd been driven out to an old, desolate industrial part of town and told if she wanted to work for Fish Mooney badly enough that she'd have to fight for it. There was a problem, Liza had been told, Fish had two suitable girls and only one job –so it was coming down to a test of who wanted it more.

At first she'd thought it seemed ridiculous, fighting over a job that she still wasn't crystal clear on what it even was –but the other girl had immediately started to remove her earrings for the fight and Liza wasn't backing down.

Her hand raised to the corner of her mouth where the other girl had managed to get a hit in and busted her skin open.

"So how does this work?" Liza questioned as she watched Bird walking around her apartment, making notes in a notebook resting on her forearm.

All her questions earned was a less than friendly expression from the girl who seemed like whatever she'd been tasked with doing had to be the worst job on the face of the earth.

Wordless, Bird spun on her heels and walked into the bedroom where she pulled back the double doors of the closet and let out a heavy sigh at the all the clothes in front of her.

"Do you own anything besides metallic miniskirts and fishnet?"

"I…" Liza started to say, but wasn't given the chance as Bird shook her head and mumbled about how they were going to have to buy all new clothes for her.

Liza's eyes narrowed slightly as she eyed Bird, who was dressed in clothes almost identical to the tight dark jeans, boots and dark shirt she'd been wearing the day before.

"You don't like me much, do you?" Liza realized, her head leaning to the right as she spoke and stood in the doorway to the room to ensure she got an answer before the other girl could slip past her.

"It's not my job to like you. It's my job to help turn you into something that…" Bird's voice trailed off, looking to the leather skirt she was wearing and tight dark blue shirt that barely came to the waistband of the skirt, motioning with her hand Bird sighed, "That looks nothing like you."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she stepped to the side and let the girl who was still making notes in her notepad to walk past her.

"Fair enough…" She sighed, tucking her waves behind her ears. Liza's high heeled shoes tapped against the wooden floor as she followed Bird back into the living room, "What are you writing down?"

"You ask a lot of questions." Bird countered flatly before explaining, "If this all works; if Falcone takes a liking to you than he's probably going to see the inside of your apartment at some point. If it doesn't look like a place the girl we're going to turn you into would live, than it's going to set off some red flags."

Thankful for some kind of answer, in honesty a clearer answer than Fish had given her about anything, Liza nodded, "Got it."

"No, Liza. I don't think you do. If you screw this up –Falcone will kill you." Thinking about everything she'd learned about Carmine Falcone and what happened to those that betrayed him, she added in a voice that sent up a chill up Liza's spine, "If Fish and I are lucky, he'll kill us too."

The weight of this job she'd fought for was starting to sink in, she could feel a physical weight pressing down on her chest from it. Being a woman of power, money and respect sounded good enough –but she was starting to wonder now if it was actually worth the price she could pay if something went wrong.

Watching as Bird went into her kitchen and declared she'd even need new dishes and silverware, Liza pulled in a deep breath. Money and power –she wanted it all and with as thorough as Bird was being with the attempt to give her entire life a makeover, Liza understood that it was too late to back out.

"Come on."

Shaken from her thoughts, Liza looked up to see Bird heading for the front door. "Where are we going?" She asked, struggling to pull on her jacket and hurry after her.

"Shopping."

 **~()~**

Liza stood in line at the fast food place, she looked over to Bird who'd just spent well over a thousand dollars on new furniture to be delivered to her apartment. She wasn't sure if she was spending her own money or if Fish had given her money to spend for the cause. Either way, in their time together Bird had warmed some and had shown her more friendly side a few times.

They'd been to a few different stores that Liza had never shopped at before and while at first she assumed from Bird's clothes they weren't stores she'd venture into either –she'd seemed to both know her way around and be comfortable there. When she'd questioned her about it, Bird admitted that a lot of these stores her mother used to shop at and tried to make her shop at too. After that, she'd taken on an unfriendly tone and told Liza to stop asking her so many questions.

So far they seemed about halfway done with everything they needed to do that day and Bird had informed her that they had time to stop for lunch. So now here they stood, at a place not too far away from the furniture store, in a rather awkward silence as the pair blended in with the lunch rush of employees from local businesses.

As they reached the front of the line and ordered their food, Liza watched as Bird payed for everything again. A relief to her, finding work wasn't always the easiest thing to do in Gotham and the truth was she'd auditioned at Fish's club out of desperation to make her rent payment for that month.

Stepping over to the side to wait on their food, Bird said, "Okay, so after this we need to hit a few more stores and hopefully have time to make it to the salon to fix your hair. If we can't today than I can come get you tomorrow-" She cut off in the middle of her sentence, nearly in the center of a word when she heard her name being called.

"Starling!"

Liza's eyebrows raised as she saw the other girls reaction as she stopped talking and got a slightly shell-shocked look on her face, before plastering on a smile and turning with a greeting of her own, "Harvey… hey."

Returning the smile he opened his mouth to say something, but Bird didn't give him the chance as she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Just grabbing lunch." He stated with a laugh as glanced around them, wondering what else she could think he was there for.

"Right." She agreed with a loud, slightly unhinged sounding laugh as she scratched the side of her forehead in disbelief at herself.

"I'm on a short recess from court." He added, seeming to either not notice her nervous ticks or not pay attention to them, "This was one of the closest places."

With a smile that caused a fluttering in Bird's stomach, he asked, "What about you?"

"Oh, just doing shopping and catching up with an old friend." She quickly answered, as she grabbed Liza's arm and pulled her up beside her and said, "This is my friend Liza."

Nodding between them she continued, "Liza, this is Harvey Dent."

"Nice to meet you." He politely said, extending a hand which Liza shook as she countered, "Likewise."

Noticing not only how fast he was to turn his attention back to Bird, but the way he watched her so intently like she could very well be the only girl in the room, Liza started to wonder if he had anything to do with the date Bird had mentioned later that night.

"You're a lawyer?" Liza questioned, remembering him talking about a recess from court.

With a nod he answered, "Asistant disctrict attorney."

Not really familiar with the title, Liza's head cocked to the side as she guessed from his association with Bird, "You represent criminals?"

"No." He answered with a small chuckle, "I'm the one who presents cases against the criminals."

"Oh…" She breathed, looking confused as she stared over to Bird, who refused to look at her now.

"What?" He asked, seeing the look on her face.

"N-nothing." She stammered, internally cringing as she saw the look Bird shot in her direction.

"Did I miss something?" Harvey asked, his attention focused solely back on Bird; who offered up a friendly smile and chuckled, "I don't think so."

Innocently looking at Liza, Bird asked, "Are you okay?"

"Mhmm." She hummed, avoiding both sets of eyes on her.

" _27."_

Realizing that was the number on his ticket Harvey turned back to the counter and got his bag of food as he said, "I need to get going."

"Of course." Bird politely replied, keeping a smile on her face.

"See you tonight though, right?" He asked, keeping his eyes on Bird as he walked past her to head for the exit.

"See you tonight." She answered with a nod.

Once she and Liza got their tray of food and sat down at a table in the back of the eating area, Liza asked, "I take it he's the important date you mentioned earlier."

"A bit of advice…" Bird sighed, "Until you know how to navigate this world, you should probably just keep your mouth shut. Don't talk unless someone asks you a question, you're more likely to keep breathing that way."

Liza's eyebrows lowered in confusion as she tried to discern whether Bird was really giving her advice or threatening her.

It wasn't long until the silence got to be too much for her and she asked, "So… he puts criminals behind bars and you're a criminal –is that why you're dating him? To have someone on the inside, keep yourself from going to jail?"

"No." Bird answered, picking her cup up to take a drink, "Fish already has plenty of people on the inside, people that are much higher positions than Harvey is –and tonight is our first date, so I'm not technically dating him."

"Ah." Liza replied, before commenting with a shrug, "He's cute."

Bird's lips curved up into a smile as she agreed whole-heartedly, "He's ridiculously cute."

The pair made small talk while they ate to pass the time, and despite Bird's varying moods ranging from making Liza feel like they were old friends one minute to feeling like she needed to take her earrings out and prepare for a fight the next –the moments when Bird was warm and welcoming to her to were a comfort she hadn't known she needed.

"This is nice." Liza couldn't stop herself from admitting, "Having someone to talk to –someone to have a lunch with, I haven't made any friends in Gotham."

Clearing her throat and wiping away all traces of any friendliness in her demeanor, Bird corrected, "We're not friends, Liza."

"Right…" she sighed, "It's not your job to be my friend."

"Liza, look-" Bird stated with a sigh of her own, "The truth is I like you and if we were meeting under different circumstances than I'm sure we would be friends, but once Fish gets you prepared to meet Falcone, that's it for us. Even if you pass me on the street you can't acknowledge me, you just walk right past me like we've never spoken before."

Nodding and letting her nervousness show, Liza questioned, "Have you met him before?"

"Falcone?" Bird asked, glancing around them to make sure no one was within ear shot of them.

"Yeah."

"A few times, yeah."

"What's he like?" Liza asked.

Blowing out a breath, Bird rubbed her hands over her face giving some thought to the answer as she said, "Carmine Falcone is… all manners and old-world charm, but Liza don't let that fool you. If you don't pull this off, if he finds out you've been working for Fish –he will kill you."

"Along with you and Fish, right? Anyone who knew about it?" Liza's voice shook slightly as she spoke.

Pulling in a deep breath, Bird repeated something she'd heard Falcone say on several occasions, "Business must come first."

* * *

 **A/N- Hope you all liked the chapter!**

 **Thank you to Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, SmellYourScentForMiles, and to the guest who all reviewed last chapter! It means the world to me!**

 **For anyone who isn't already, you can find me on Tumblr (sagelondyn) I'm always posting edits to go along with this story. ^_^**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	9. Breathing Fire

**IX**

 _"I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind." ― Michel de Montaigne_

* * *

Oswald sat on Bird's couch, still dressed in his suit from the day. He wasn't entirely sure if he was going to stay in for the night yet or not; he knew he should. Everyone still thought he was dead and it seemed every time he went somewhere other than to work at Maroni's resturaunt, he'd been seen by someone and had to eliminate them as a means of keeping both his being alive and his return to Gotham a secret.

Any other night he had no problem staying in, but not only was it a Friday –it was the night Bird was supposed to get dinner with Harvey Dent and he'd been seriously considering tailing them for the night. There would be a risk involved, he knew that, not only the chance of being seen by someone who'd drag him back to Fish Mooney, but also because he knew Bird was constantly making herself aware of her surroundings and if he got caught spying on her –he'd have some explaining to do. He wasn't looking to be on the receiving end of her anger, especially not while he was still dependent on her for a safe place to stay.

Rubbing his hands over his face, he shook his head in disbelief at himself. Why put himself through the torture of seeing her on a date with someone who wasn't him? She was more than capable of taking care of herself so he couldn't even lie to himself that he should follow them to make sure she was safe; in fact he had no real reason to follow her aside from the ever growing obsession he'd developed with his best friend.

Reaching under the coffee table, he pulled out the black duffel bag full of cash that he'd retrieved from the thieves he'd hired to rob the restaurant after he'd killed them with heavily poisoned cannoli. He'd already promised the money to Falcone as a gift, yet another way to get further into the trusted circle of the biggest crime boss in Gotham City, but he'd only made the promise of stolen monetary gain to the Don, not an exact amount. Opening the bag, his eyes moved back and forth with hungriness over all of the cash; how much could he keep for himself, he wondered.

The time for him to return home and let word spread of his return to Gotham was approaching fast, with a gaze towards Bird's closed bedroom door, Oswald had to admit it almost seemed to be coming too fast. But either way, it would be nice to spend the rest of that time there not needing to rely on her for any more money –plus, her birthday was coming up and he'd been hunting for the perfect gift for weeks now. He had his eye on a few different things and none of them would come cheap.

 **~()~**

Hearing the floor creak just outside of her bedroom door, Bird flipped her head to look over her shoulder expecting Oswald to either knock on the door or ask her something.

She'd been avoiding him ever since she'd gotten home a few hours prior after her day long shopping trip with Liza.

After ignoring Oswald's phone calls for the day and then coming home with a single shopping bag, she'd been met at her door with him wanting to know where she'd been all day. Normally she'd have been honest with him, told him about Fish hiring a young woman to use as a secret weapon against Carmine Falcone, but lately her friend's ambition to rush his way to the top of the crime ladder in Gotham had been what almost got him killed.

So Fish's plan and Liza were secrets she was keeping to herself until the time right, if Oswald let anything slip before it was time he'd get all of them killed and it's not like the task of killing would be left up to someone with a conscience like Jim Gordon. No, for a betrayal like that Falcone would probably sic Victor Zsasz on them and she'd rather throw herself off the top of the highest building in Gotham than be taken alive by Zsasz, she'd heard plenty of horror stories about his basement.

Shaking her head, Bird focused back on her reflection in the full length mirror she was facing as she was now left scrambling to finish getting ready for her date that night. After applying her last coat of mascara, she took a few steps back and slowly turned from side to side to see her date night look from all angles.

Sometimes she surprised herself, she might have felt most comfortable in jeans and leather, with comfortable worn boots. But she appeared to look just as at home in the black, strapless bandeau styled dress with a gold plated belt around the fitted waist of the garment that she'd paired with a pair of mint green suede peep-toe platform stiletto's that cost more than some people's rent.

Putting on the mask of feeling just as comfortable wandering the floor of luxury galas and dancing the night away in high-class lounges, as she appeared navigating the dangerous streets of Gotham and popular dive bars was a skill she'd taken a while to master, but one of the most important. She could go anywhere, blend in with any crowd and have it appear like she belonged in the chosen setting more than anyone else. Being able to seamlessly merge into and mingle with any crowd was one of her best worked angles of deception.

After a few spritzes of perfume, Bird was in the process of getting a thin black jacket out of her closet when she heard a knock at her door. Closing her eyes she let out a sigh, she clearly remembered telling Harvey to just call her when he got there, that he didn't need to come up to her apartment.

Pulling open her bedroom door, her eyes widened as she saw Oswald in the middle of a scrambled hobbling run towards her door.

"Hey!" She hissed, getting him to stop immediately as he turned to face her. Walking up to him she whisper yelled, "What are you doing?"

His mouth hung slightly open as he took in the sight of her clothing choice for the night. If it were up to him, he'd have her dressed up all the time, but for some reason she preferred to dress not too differently from a lot of the street kids.

"Well?" She demanded to know, wanting an answer from him. Considering he was not only supposed to be dead, but there was a large bag full of cash within plain sight from the door.

"You look absolutely beautiful, Bird." Oswald admitted, the smile on his lips growing as he saw her face light up at his words.

Smiling at him with the smile he loved to see, especially when he was the cause of if, she softly replied, "Thanks."

He gave a small nod, as he stepped to the side to let her past him towards the door where he guessed Harvey was probably on the other side trying to figure out how to long to wait before knocking again.

Watching as she walked past him, Oswald held his breath in order keep from protesting her departure. A million reasons on why she shouldn't walk out that door swirled around in the darkness of his mind, but none of them seemed worthy of voicing out loud and flat out admitting he couldn't stand the idea of her getting romantically involved with anyone was out of the question.

Just as she reached the door she turned around to give him one last smile before opening the door just enough for her to slip out into the hallway and close it behind her without giving Harvey time to look inside of her apartment.

As quietly as possible, Oswald ventured over to the door to look through the peephole hoping to get a glimpse of the man who he now hated for taking his Bird away, even if it was just for the night. But he sighed when all he could see was the back of Bird's head, his eyes narrowed as he wondered if she was standing there on purpose.

Turning around, he rested his back against the door and tried to think of what he'd do to pass the time until she came back. He told himself it would probably only be a few hours until she returned home, a few hours that he needed to spend thinking of anything else in the world besides her. A feat that almost seemed possible, until he heard the sound of her laugh carry through the wooden door like notes of a favorite song; the sound normally brought a smile to his face but not this time.

" _You look amazing tonight."_

Hearing the unfamiliar male voice through the door made Oswald's blood feel like it was boiling under his skin. Amazing? No, he thought, she was flawless –like a breathing, walking, flesh and blood embodiment of the finest art known to man. Pinning his eyes shut he thought of how he should have told her that, instead of simply saying she looked beautiful. Maybe if he'd told her that, she would have stayed there with him.

He continued to listen as Bird not only thanked him for the compliment but returned the nicety, before the couple left and despite their absence, Oswald's hands remained clenched in fists down at his sides. He didn't have to be watching her to know she'd been talking with a smile on her face, he could hear the lightness in her voice, the sun in her tone and it bothered him to the core that it was another man getting that reaction from her.

The look of rage on his face melted into an anything but friendly smile as he knew there was a chance the date would be short lived. In his meeting with Falcone earlier that day, he'd learned that since Mayor James had almost been killed by Maroni's people, he was more than likely going to work out a compromise on what would happen with the Arkham deal. If that was the case, there would be a press conference held that night and Oswald had pointed out that the citizens of Gotham might sleep easier over the compromise if they heard from a member of the Wayne family.  
If everything went according to plan, it wouldn't be too long before Bird got a call from Falcone's people and had to cut the date short.

 **~()~**

Harvey watched Bird closely as she sat across the table from him, there was a glimmer in her eyes as she turned in her seat to take in their surroundings in the low, romantic lighting.

Two walls were made of large, spotless windows which opened the dining room up to a view of the sun starting to set over the city. Tall, round, decorative columns were placed around the room and in the center was a large chandelier with the color scheme staying in the white, black and silver range.

A back wall was lined in floor to ceiling, lighted glass shelves showcased a vast selection of fine wines and champagne, along with row after row of long stemmed crystal glasses.

He lowered his head with a smile as he saw her eyeing the center piece of fresh flowers moments before she stealthy reached out a hand and tugged on one of the petals before remarking with an almost puzzled expression, "Hmm."

Hearing him chuckle, her alert eyes darted back to him and he offered a smile as he asked, "Have you eaten here before?"

Glancing back around the room, she shook her head, "No, I don't really think so."

Taking a sip of her water, she asked, "What about you?"

"I've been here a few times." Harvey admitted, his eyes still locked on her.

Despite the beautiful, elaborately decorated room around them, he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"Oh?" Bird asked, playfulness to her tone as she asked, "You take all of your dates here?"

"Hardly." He laughed, "I'm probably not supposed to admit this, but it's been a while since I've actually been out with someone."

Holding back a laugh, Bird looked around at the dim lighting clearly meant to create a romantic ambiance –she asked, "You come here alone?"

"It's a completely different atmosphere in the daylight." He defended before teasing, "It's also easier to tell the difference between real and artificial flowers in the light too."

Realizing he'd clearly seen her feeling up the flowers in the centerpiece, her dimples showed as she argued, "They looked too perfect to be real."

Leaning in slightly, Harvey admitted, "And it's difficult to find a place to eat in Gotham that isn't in Maroni's or Falcone's territories."

With raised eyebrows she asked, "That's really important to you, isn't it? Part of your dream to clean up Gotham?"

"When you call it a dream… you make it sound unattainable." He stated, his head cocked slightly to the side.

"Maybe it is." She breathed, before explaining, "Even if you could, by some chance, lock the crime families up and throw away the key… you have to know that someone else will just step up and claim the territories. There has to be countless people right now just waiting until Falcone is too old to run things the way he has been."

"I don't disagree. It would be foolish to think putting them away would solve the problem, it would just be a shift in the balance." Harvey agreed, "But the problem is that Gotham has become a place built specifically to not only protect, but to nourish the corrupt and that won't change without people being willing to step up and do something about it."

"I admire your conviction, I think it's a crazy idea and you're going to make a city full of enemies going down that road, but I think it's good. It's good to have something to believe in." Bird politely said.

"You don't believe Gotham can be saved, at all?" He pushed, trying to get past her well-mannered responses and the smile she kept giving him, like she knew so much more than he did.

"I'm a realist." She shrugged, leaning forward as she added, "I've even been called a cynic, but I think at the end of day… Gotham is what it is, that we are what we are."

The indifference in her tone caught him off guard to where it took a few moments for him to be able to respond, "So that's it? Everyone should just turn the other cheek and let the corruption that's crippling this city continue to grow like an infection?"

"You're assuming that people actually care enough to want change to happen." Bird argued with him.

"They do." He said, confidently, "They're just scared to rise up, the same people have been running the show for so long that it's hard to imagine a different city –a better city. They need something to believe in."

He looked up to where their waitress had returned with their plate of mushroom puff appetizers, looking between them she silently set the plat down in the middle before placing smaller dining plates in front of each of them and walking off.

Lowering his head, he pulled in a deep breath and looked at her from under his brows to see she didn't appear the least bit angry or worked up at all. It was then it occurred to him that she clearly saw their conversation was over something he felt so passionately about it got under his skin when she seemed completely indifferent on the matter.

He pulled another breath in between his teeth, and raised his head intending to call her out on simply trying to get him worked up, but before he got the chance she spoke first.

"What if you fail?" Bird questioned, there was sincerity in her tone, the look in her eyes verging on one of innocence and wonder, "What if you spent so much time and effort trying to achieve something that ends up always being just out of reach?"

Any anger he'd felt towards her was gone when their eyes locked and he got the feeling that her current question no longer had to do with anything they'd previously been discussing.

With a small shrug he answered, "I guess that would depend on your definition of failing. To me, the greatest failure would be to just accept that things can never change, failing would be not even trying to make a difference."

Their eyes met again and this time she smiled before lowering her head some; leaving him wondering what was going through her head when she remained silent.

"What are you thinking about?" He questioned.

"Honestly?" Bird asked, waiting on him to signal he really wanted to know before she remarked in a lively tone, "I think you're a rare breed, Harvey Dent."

His eyebrows raised in surprise with a smile toying at the corner of his mouth as he laughed, "What?"

Bird couldn't help but shake her head as she thought of how her dad would have loved him, and the irony of that being that if her parents hadn't been killed she'd probably have never crossed paths with Harvey.

"You're handsome and charming, you're a good guy with dreams bigger than Gotham City itself…"

Closely watching her and picking up on both her body language and tone he observed, "You're saying that like it's a bad thing?"

"No, it's not bad." Bird chuckled, "It just makes me wonder what you're doing out on a date with me."

She watched him closely as his eyes narrowed slightly in question, like he was trying to see if she was joking or it was some kind of trick question.

"Starling-"

"Bird." She corrected.

"I am not calling you Bird." He argued, shaking his head and laughing as he spoke.

"Everyone calls me Bird." She stated, raising her eyebrows as she remembered the first time they'd met and he'd refused to call her Bird; saying it was unprofessional. "Besides, Harvey… aren't we past being professional?"

"We are… but I'm still not going to call you Bird." He asserted, whether she wanted to go by the nickname or not –it didn't feel right to him to call her by a name he still wasn't entirely sure of the meaning behind.

"And…" He added, leaning over the table some as he spoke, "I'm out on a date with you because I haven't been able to get you off my mind since we first met. You're beautiful and you carry this… mysterious air about you." His stare was intense as he added, "But I get the feeling you know that already."

Biting down on her bottom lip, she looked down at the table before meeting his gaze with a coy smile.

"See?" He asked, motioning towards her with a hand, "You look at me with that smile and I don't know, it's like even your smile says ' _you don't know me at all_ '."

"Maybe you don't want to know me?" Bird countered, almost having to hold back a laugh at how true her words really were. Not many people got close enough to know the real her and most that did probably left wishing they hadn't.

She knew what she was; she was a criminal currently conspiring with her best friend to take over Gotham. She wasn't only lethal, she could kill without hesitation and most days didn't waste energy on feeling guilt over the bad things she'd done.

At the end of the day –she was what she'd spent the last four years making herself into and for the most part she was able to coincide with the demons in her head, both the ones she was born with and the ones she'd created.

"I do want to know you." Harvey stressed to her, before looking around them and smiling as he said, "Despite the fact that on our first date pretty much started with a debate over Gotham."

"Okay." She laughed with a nod of surrender, "What do you want to know?"

He had so many questions; so much that he wanted to know about her, but he got the feeling from any answer that she'd ever given him that she only revealed about half the story.

Blowing out a breath, he tried to word his question without it sounding offensive, "You know what I do for work, do you have a job… or-"

"Or what? Live off my family's fortune?" She helped him finish his sentence in a much less eloquent way than he'd planned.

"Well, I've been working since I was seventeen… but I'd be lying if I tried to say I'd been financially independent from them. I moved into my own apartment pretty much the day I turned eighteen and my parents weren't too happy about it, but even so they still made sure I had everything I needed." A look of sadness filled her eyes as she added in a quieter voice, "Even after they died they're still trying to take care of me."

He remembered the first day they'd met, when she learned about the money and shares in Wayne Enterprises that her father had left her. To say she'd been surprised that day would be an understatement, she'd originally thought everything had been left to her brother.

Seeing the sadness in her eyes, he tried to get away from the subject of her dead parents, "What kind of work?"

"Nightclubs."

"Nightclubs?"

"That's what I said." Bird answered with a laugh at the look on his face, "Well, so far mainly just one nightclub."

"What do you do there?" He questioned.

"A little bit of everything." She laughed, "I started out bussing tables and doing odd and end jobs. Now, I pretty much handle the outgoing orders and making sure the bar is stocked. I'm also a pretty decent bar tender when that's what's needed from me. I've had to kick people out too."

"Like a bouncer?" He asked, clearly amused by the newly learned information.

"Something like that." She answered, "I've also learned the ins and outs of what it takes to run a successful business here in Gotham –which might come in handy one day. I've just always wanted something of my own, something that's all mine and I didn't get because of my last name."

A small smile fell on his lips as he watched her talking, every time he learned something new about her, it just drew him to her more. She was nothing short of being full of surprises and he wanted to become acquainted with them all.

Just as their waitress returned with their entrees, Bird's cellphone started to ring from her purse.

"Sorry, I thought I'd turned this off." She apologized as she picked her bag up and located the ringing cellphone.

Seeing the expression change on her face he asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Uh…" She breathed, "I'm really sorry, but I need to take this."

Without giving him time to answer, she darted up from the table and headed towards the back of the restaurant where he watched her from the table as she paced back and forth in front of the hallway leading to the restroom while she talked on her phone with someone for a while before she disappeared down the hallway.

Several minutes passed and he started to wonder if there was a back exit to the restaurant she'd slipped out of, after all she'd seemed to vanish into thin air on him time and time again.

Finally, he looked back up and saw her heading for the table.

Smiling Harvey admitted, "I was beginning to think you'd slipped out a back exit or something."

"Harvey, I'm sorry but…" Her voice trailed off as her gazed focused past him out of the front of the restaurant where a sleek, large black car with dark tinted windows had pulled to a stop right by the exit. Letting out a heavy sigh she continued, "I have to go."

"What? We just got our food." He asked, growing more confused by the second with the sudden change in her behavior.

"I had a really nice time." She offered a smile with the nicety, as she dug through her purse for her wallet, "I really am sorry."

"Starling-"

"This should cover dinner." She cut him off as she set some cash down on the table, before pulling her jacket on.

"No." Harvey argued, shaking his head back and forth. Looking down he picked up the money from the table as he said, "There's no way I'm letting you pay…"

His voice trailed off, when he realized she had yet again seemingly vanished; or so he thought until he turned around to see her getting into the back of the car as the driver shut the door behind her before returning back to the front of the car.

Dropping back down into his seat, he laid the money back down and rubbed a hand over his face; feeling like the last few moments with Bird had left his head spinning.

 **~()~**

Bird pulled in a deep breath as she watched the restaurant start to disappear from view. "Don Falcone." Bird greeted, appearing rather composed compared to the whirlwind of nerves and confusion she felt inside.

With a smile he nodded at her as he commented, "You look lovely."

"Thank you, sir."

Internally she cringed as she heard her voice shake when she spoke. She'd been shocked to receive a call directly from him and when he said it was urgent that he speak with her, she'd went into a panic.

They hadn't sent Liza to meet him yet and the only people who knew about that plan besides herself was Fish Mooney and Butch Gilzean; neither of which would have spoken a word of it to the wrong person.

In her mind the only other reason he'd want to talk to her must have to do with Oswald –which had to mean her best friend's plan wasn't going on as swimmingly as he'd been letting on.

Clearing her throat and deciding to play entirely clueless as to why Falcone would want to meet with her so urgently he'd not only sent a car after her, but was in the car, Bird said, "You said on the phone it was urgent that we speak?"

"Yes." He nodded, before the car fell into another bout of silence that left her trying to discretely rub the sweat away that had beaded on her forehead with every passing second.

"I believe the last time I saw you was your parents funeral?" He questioned.

"I don't know…" She answered honestly with a shrug, "Everything from that day is kind of a blur; still doesn't feel real." Her eyes dropped to her lap as she declined to admit another reason she barely remembered that day was because she'd taken several different medications to steady her nerves and anxiety and had been about as mentally alert as a zombie that day.

"Yes, I'd imagine so." He agreed, "The death of your parents has left the entirety of Gotham on shaky ground, at best. As you know, I'd taken over the backing of the Wayne's plan for Arkham."

Bird nodded, letting out a small sigh of relief as she started to realize this meeting had nothing to do with Oswald or even her work at Fish's club.

"You deserve to hear it from me that Mayor James has reached a compromise on what to do with Arkham. The low income housing will still be constructed, but in return Maroni will get to refurbish Arkham and build that waste disposal site."

Her eyebrows furrowed upon hearing the news, she knew the day before that Maroni had almost succeeded when he'd put a hit out on the mayor but she didn't expect him to reach a decision on what to the do the very next day from a place of fear.

"Bird, you have handled everything that's happened with the grace of someone far beyond your years. I know it couldn't have been easy for you when the decision was made to have Pepper go down for their murders, but you understood that justice had to be swift for the people of Gotham to rest easy. That even though your parents death was a tragedy, it upset the balance in ways that none of us could have foreseen and certain actions had to be taken."

"Of course." She agreed, keeping her voice steady and tone calm as she spoke, "What happened to my parents sent the city spiraling into chaos, which isn't good for anyone." With raised eyebrows she added with a tinge of arrogance in her tone, "Chaos is just bad for business."

With a smile he noted, "Spoken like a true Mafioso."

"I've been in this world of organized crime for quite some time now, I'd like to think I've learned a thing or two." She replied, with a small half smile.

"I needed to speak with you tonight because in a matter of minutes the mayor will be holding a small press conference to inform the public of the Arkham compromise and in truth I think the decision would go over much smoother with everyone if they also heard from a member of the Wayne family."

Her head tilted to the side with a look of confusion gracing her features as the car passed under a bright streetlight, "Heard what from me, exactly?"

"That the decision reached is the best choice possible; that it benefits everyone and that if your parents were still alive today you could see them supporting the compromise." He admitted, watching her reaction closely.

"Sir?" Bird questioned, with a noise like the air had been knocked out of her, "I don't understand, this decision isn't good for anyone. The fact that Maroni got any part of Arkham is terrible for you, isn't it?"

"Gotham is on a knife's edge." Falcone stated, "I know this feels and sounds like a loss, but really… this is a win for everyone."

Bird bit down on the inside of her cheek, knowing she should just stay quiet and nod along with what he was telling her. She didn't want to say something out of turn, get on the crime boss's bad side –but she also needed it to be known that she wasn't some mindless drone there to do his bidding. To get respect in that world she had to be tough, she needed to show that while she respected him; she also wasn't afraid to call things like she saw them.

"Don Falcone, with all due respect… that's a load of bull and we both know it. Maroni has been trying to find all the chinks in your armor for years and this is _his_ first real win; that doesn't set right with me and I know it has to worry you."

The corner of his mouth twitched up into a smile at her boldness, he had men twice her age who didn't have the gall to speak their mind to him.

"Worried? No, I never lose sleep over my enemies." He said, blowing out a breath as he conceded, "But you are right, the fact that Maroni was able to gain footing with the Arkham deal is… troubling. No one in Gotham wants a war, and to keep the peace there's going to be some give and take. This time it just happens to be we're on the giving end of the equation."

"I get it." Bird assured him, looking around as she realized the car had stopped. Looking out of her window she realized they must have arrived at the building where the mayor was going to be holding the conference, "I'll do it… or at least I'll try too, not sure how well I'll do in front of all those cameras."

Falcone's driver opened the door on his side and her legs started to feel like mush when she realized she'd be out of the car next and struggling to find her words, all while knowing her brother would be watching and probably wouldn't understand how or why she'd get on TV and say the things she was about to say.

Bird held her breath and nervously smoothed her dress over her legs with the hope that the moments until she had to face a room of reporters and cameras would take centuries, but all too soon the door on her side opened. It wasn't until a hand was extended to her that she realized it was Falcone and not the driver.

Smiling in thanks, she took his hand as he helped her out of the car. "You'll do fine." He assured her.

She nodded, unable to find her words as she started to turn and walk away.

"I don't think I've had the opportunity to thank you for calling me that day, informing me that Fish was going to kill two GCPD detectives."

Bird froze at his words, her shoulders tensing up as she slowly turned back around to face him.

"Thank you." Falcone spoke with a knowing look in his eyes, "I understand you're working for Fish again, correct?"

"Until she finds out I'm the one who outed her." Bird said, her eyebrows raised as she wondered what he was trying to get at.

"I don't see any reason she'd need to know that phone call came from you. As it is, I'm glad to hear you're working under her again. She's important to me but she's been known to be too impetuous at times. There's a comfort in knowing there's someone with a level head keeping an eye on things."

"Heh." Bird let out a small laugh as she said, "I acted on impulse myself that day, and Don Falcone –if you're asking me to keep an eye on her and report back to you, I'm sorry but I'm not a snitch. I'm not…" Her voice trailed off.

Realizing what she'd almost let slip, Falcone's brows raised as he finished the sentence for her, "Cobblepot?"

When her eyes darted up to meet his, he held his hands up as signal she had nothing to worry about. "I know you know he's alive."

He couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the expression on her face, like she expected him to send her to her death at any moment.

"You needn't worry. I like you, Bird. You've already got a deep understanding of how things work here in Gotham, you've got a lot of potential. If you continue down the path you're going, I see a bright future for you here; one where you'd be above answering to Fish Mooney." Checking the time on his watch, he motioned towards the building letting her know she was free to go as he called after her, "Keep that in mind."

* * *

 **A/N- I'd like to thank Love. Fiction, 2016, Miss E Charlotte, SmellYourScentForMiles, SusieSamurai and Erudessa-gabrielle for reviewing last chapter. It seriously means the world to me guys!**

 **Hope you all liked the chapter. Thanks for reading. ^_^**


	10. Duality

**X**

 _"The source of evil is desire, greed, and anger."― Aleksandra Layland_

* * *

Bird stood in the doorway leading into the room where the press was set up for the mayor's announcement. There were rows of blue chairs facing a podium, and television cameras off to the sides and at the very back of the room. Pulling in a deep breath she cursed Falcone in her head for not giving her much time to figure out what she'd need to say once those cameras were rolling.

Slowly exhaling and finding a bit of calm amongst the chaos going on in the side room she'd been placed in, she considered that on second thought she might actually pull this off better going on a whim than if she'd had days of planning for it.

This was nothing but playing a role, getting out there with a smile plastered on and saying the things everyone wanted to hear. Just another deception, she told herself. Besides, Don Falcone wasn't the type of person you could easily say no to.

"Miss Wayne."

Turning around she saw Mayor James heading towards her.

"Mayor James." She greeted returning the smile and handshake he offered.

She'd never cared much for Gotham's current mayor, of course she understood the need to bend in order to keep from getting broken by the crime families in the city, but this compromise he'd came to –to save his own skin wasn't good for anyone. All he was doing was showcasing how weak he was, that with the first threat on his life he'd do anything to appease all the parties involved as long as it kept him safe.

"I'm glad you could be here tonight." He continued, "I know news of the compromise might not be an easy pill to swallow for the people of Gotham, but in the end I believe it's the best option for everyone. It's the plan the city needs."

The smile remained on her lips, but an almost blank expression fell over her brown eyes as she stared back at him in disbelief. He was trying to sell the idea to her as if she couldn't think and see for herself the many flaws it possessed.

"Save it for the cameras." Bird replied, her voice steady as she looked around them.

With a startled expression he asked, "I'm sorry?"

"You heard me." Bird said with a stern tone to her voice, "I mean being under Falcone's influence is one thing, but bending over for Maroni too? That's a new low… even for you."

His mouth hung open in shock as he stared back at her, his cheeks and the edges of his ears had taken on a red hue from anger at what she'd said.

Taking a step forward he growled under his breath, "They tried to kill me."

"Mayor James, if I had a dollar for every time someone threatened me or actually tried to kill me…" Her voice trailed off and she gave a small shrug before adding in an arrogant laced tone, "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I'm a Wayne, the one thing I don't need more of is money."

"Good, I've caught you both here. We're going live in about four minutes."

They both turned to see one of the media liaisons for the mayor's office scrambling towards them with a wooden clipboard in her arms.

"We'll start everything off with the Mayor's speech, after which Miss Wayne will take over –say a few words, and then it will go back to the Mayor where we've allowed time for a small question and answer segment." She said, looking frazzled as her eyes darted between them.

"Sounds great." Bird feigned enthusiasm, as the dread in the pit of her stomach started to grow.

"Here." The woman said, as she pulled a paper off the clipboard and handed it to Bird, "I drew up a small outline and suggestions of what to say, you know, in case you start to freeze up in front of the cameras."

"Thanks…" She breathed, taking the paper in her hands which she barely had time to glance over before she and the mayor were ushered from the side room to the front of the room filled with reporters.

Bird stood back some and off to the side as the mayor delivered his speech, detailing ways in which this plan for Arkham would be best for the city. She kept a smile on her face despite it taking all of the restraint she had to not roll her eyes every single time he opened his mouth. By the end of his dialogue she'd completely blocked out what he said, it wasn't until she heard her own name that her thoughts came back to the present.

As she listened and watched Mayor James introduce her with the upmost politeness and respect, despite the encounter they'd had several minutes prior, her knees started to feel like they were composed of jello with toothpick bones that could splinter and give way at any moment.

It was just a few short steps until she reached the podium, steps that felt treacherous with her weak legs. Laying the sheet of paper down on the wood, she gripped the sides so tight her knuckles immediately started to turn a ghost white shade, "Thank you, Mayor James." She said nodding with a smile as he stepped to the side to let her take the center of the room and the press' attention.

Her breath caught in her throat as she looked around the room and any words she'd been plotting in her head seemed to dissipate, leaving no trace behind as her stomach felt like she had a full blown tsunami raging inside of it.

Managing to pull her eyes away from all the faces staring at her, eagerly awaiting to hear what she had to say. Bird looked down to the paper, her eyes frantically trying to take in the suggested talking points and lines she could use if she lost her way, urgently she searched for something she could say and build off of –a saving grace of some sort; but there wasn't one. Nothing written on that page sounded like anything she'd ever say and it was far too late to back down now.

Hearing a low rumble of whispers go through the room, Bird knew she had to say something –at this point it felt like anything would suffice.

Crumpling up the paper she'd placed on the podium, she let the paper ball fall to the floor next to her feet as she took in a deep breath and looked back out to everyone in the room.

"They, uh… they gave me a paper of talking points I was supposed to use if I got lost up here." Bird admitted, with a small smile she nodded to the crumpled paper on the floor and added, "Turns out it wasn't very helpful."

A few laughs sounded from around the room in response to her words and honesty, a welcome relief to the cold silence or rumble of whispers.

"When I was first asked to speak here tonight, I was caught off guard. Both because I was going to be speaking at an event with the Mayor and because I wasn't expecting the outcome of the decision that was reached. I was asked to stand up here in front of all of you and feed you some lines about how this is what my parent's would have wanted if they were still with us, but once I got here –I really started to ask myself: Is this compromise between the Wayne plan and the opposing plan really something my mother and father could have supported?"

Her voice trailed, off as she looked around the room of reporters –all waiting silently with their eyes glued to her. She could also feel the mayor and his staff staring at her nervously, afraid she was going to screw things up or say something she shouldn't. But not a one of them dared to try and shoo her away from the cameras, not only was this live TV but she was doing what she was supposed to; she'd captivated the audience, had them hanging on her every word.

She was appearing likeable and friendly, which had been her plan all along. She'd thought that if she could make her speech a warm and welcome contrast to the Mayor's speech of laying out cold facts –that she'd have their trust. There was a time and place for everything; right now was the time for her to seem as human and as believable as possible.

"Do you?" A voice came from the crowd. It wasn't open time for questions and the audience of reporters and press knew that, but even so one male reporter stood up as he asked, "Do you think your parents would have been happy with this outcome?"

Looking from the cameras at the back of the room, to the brave soul who'd dared to be the voice in the sea of quiet, Bird answered, "No."

A collective gasp filled the room, and she waited for the silence to return before she continued, "Not at first. My parents, especially my mother felt so passionately about The Wayne Plan for the Arkham District –every single piece and every single square foot was mapped out. I'm sure that if they'd lived to see this decision, it would have first felt like a failure to them –as I'm sure it does to many of you. But the longer I sat with the idea, the more I was able to see it clearly. This is nothing short of a win for Gotham City."

Bird paused again for dramatic effect as she looked back over the crowd, "It may not be the plan that most of us wanted to succeed in the beginning, but I truly think this compromise of the two plans is a blessing in disguise. And I know, that given some time to think everything over my parent's would have supported it as well. They wanted to help Gotham's least fortunate and that's exactly what this plan will do with the low income housing being constructed and the asylum being refurbished."

Scanning the room again, she politely smiled as she said, "Thank you."

With a slight bow of her head, she stepped back and let the mayor reclaim his spot at the podium when the floor was opened up for questions.

The room stayed silent for a few moments, before a reporter asked, "Mayor James, do you feel like the outcome is a failure of The Wayne Plan?"

Raising a dismissive hand and swiping it through the air, he shook his head, "This is not a case of either plan failing. This is a case of compromise for what's best for the people of Gotham. The Arkham District will be developed into low cost housing as well as a much needed waste disposal site. This is the best of both plans, together in one."

Motioning back to where Bird was standing, he added, "I think Starling Wayne said it best; this compromise is a blessing in disguise. It's the plan that is best suited for our city." Looking straight into the camera at the center of the back of the room, he finished, "Gotham needs- No, Gotham _deserves_ a world class treatment facility for the mentaly ill. And I know that if Thomas and Martha Wayne were still alive they would have been proud of what we were able to accomplish today; who better to have heard that from than their eldest child?" With that, he stepped to the side and motioned to Bird as he politely thanked her for being there and for sharing her views, earning a round of applause of everyone in the room.

 **~(Later that night)~**

After changing into her sleeping clothes for the night, Bird walked out of her bathroom and dropped her dress from earlier that night into the dirty clothes hamper by her dresser before she turned back to look at Oswald not only sleeping in her bed, but on the side she always slept on.

When she'd first came into her apartment after getting home and didn't see him on the couch, she had a moment of panic wondering what had happened and where he was until she went into her bedroom and found him asleep on her bed

Not that she minded too much, after the night she'd had and knowing that very soon she'd have to face her brother who'd have an endless list of questions about why she'd say the things she said at the press conference –it was nice knowing she was coming home to someone who wouldn't be the least bit mad or judge her over what she'd said on the news

Pulling the blankets back she crawled into the empty side of her bed and covered up, flipping onto her side and facing in his direction with a small surprised gasp when she realized he was awake and looking at her.

"Hey." She greeted. Her voice carried with it the scent of alcohol on her breath and he realized the reason she'd gotten home so late after the press conference was because she'd clearly hit a least a few bars on the way back to her apartment.

"I saw you on the news." He stated, doing his best to pretend like he had no idea Falcone was going to call on her to speak that night.

"Yeah…" She breathed, closing her eyes and snuggling her unwashed face against the pillows, leaving dark smudges from her eye makeup as she confided, "I kind of hate myself for that. I hate myself even more for not having the courage to face Bruce tonight, I should have gone by the house right after the conference but I was too chicken."

His eyes scanned her face as he said with a half-smile, "You are a lot of things Bird, but cowardly isn't one of them."

"He's gonna hate me, you know. He won't understand why I did what I did…" Her voice trailed off as she took in a loud breath she nearly choked on before slurring, "Can I tell you a secret?"

Oswald let out a small chuckle at the question as he answered, "You can tell me anything, Bird."

"I think my parents would have disowned me today."

Raising up, slightly he watched with a serious expression on his face as she buried her face further into the pillow muffling her voice as she admitted, "I kept waiting for it, you know? Before they died… all the bad I'd done, I just kept thinking something would finally be enough that they'd be done with me. But they didn't. The worse of a person I became the more they tried to show how much they loved me. It's sick. It's so sick how much I tested them, I don't even know why I did it. I don't know… I guess –I guess I just knew I was never good enough for them, that no matter what I did, I wouldn't be deserving of the Wayne name and it's so messed up but I wanted them to tell me that." Her whole body shifted on the mattress as she tried to shrug.

"You did what you had to do." Oswald tried to assure her, starting to feel a pit of guilt inside of him for being responsible for putting the idea in Falcone's head to have Bird talk at the press conference. But he'd only allow himself to feel guilt to a certain degree. After all; if she'd never decided to go on a date with Harvey Dent, then he wouldn't have ever had to present the idea to Falcone in the first place. She was his Bird; which in his mind completely justified his actions.

"I'm gonna miss you." She mumbled; her words seeming even more slurred or more muffled from the pillow. He couldn't be sure, all he knew was he could barely understand her now and she hadn't seemed to be listening to what he'd last told her.

"Miss me?" He asked, laying a hand on her arm and shaking her when she didn't answer him.

"Yeah." She nodded, rubbing more of her dark eye makeup off onto her pillow case before raising up slightly to look at him with red eyes that seemed unable to focus on anything, "After Maroni finds out who you really are and then Fish knows you're alive. We'll have to part ways, you know? Too risky to be seen together."

He let out a troubled sigh at her words. The thought had crossed his mind several times too, the idea of a period of time where the risk of even speaking to one another would pose too great a risk. Oswald considered for a brief moment that –that may have been why the idea of her starting to date anyone right now was unbearable. Without him around, she'd have plenty of time to get close to someone else.

"I'd rather not think about it." Oswald admitted with a sour feeling growing in his stomach.

"Me either." Bird agreed, turning onto her back and laying her arm over her eyes to block out any traces of light, "It makes me feel ill."

His gaze darted back in Bird's direction, slightly widened from the admission she'd just made.  
The thought of not being able to stay in contact with him made her feel ill? He couldn't deny that brought him an almost perverse satisfaction.

"We're not just friends… we're twisted up in one another." She added, her voice slightly distorted as she yawned and turned to face away from him.

His eyebrows lowered at the statement which had first seemed to be the beginning of another of her alcohol fueled rambles –until she stopped talking, that was.

"Bird?" He called out in the room, feeling like he was only speaking to the air now.

When she didn't answer, he reached a hand over and started to shake her, but just as his hand landed on her arm she flung her other arm up and slapped his hand with lightning fast speed.

Jerking back, he held onto his now sore hand as he stared at her with a look of disbelief on his face –unable to tell whether she was asleep or just no longer wished to speak to him.

"Goodnight, then." He mumbled, as he flopped on his other side to face away from her –moving around in the bed as much as possible to make sure it would disrupt her if she was sleeping.

 **~(The next day)~**

The sun was starting to set as Bird drove up the long driveway to Wayne Manor. The red and orange painted waves in the sky mixed with the shadows from the large trees caused the mansion to feel more imposing than usual.

Her stomach had been twisted in knots for the better part of the day and she'd put off coming to see her brother for as long as possible. She'd even stopped on the way there at a small café to get a coffee and try calling Harvey Dent to apologize again for running out on him the night before during their date, but he didn't pick up. Not that she blamed him much, if the tables had been reversed she wasn't entirely sure she'd answer the call either.

Bothering her more than anything was _how much_ it was bothering her that he wouldn't answer her calls. She didn't know him very well and their first date involved a heated debate in which at one point he looked angry enough to start throwing things, and ended with her running off without any explanation. She knew she hadn't given him much of a reason to want to see her again, but deep down it was upsetting to know she was so easily dismissed.

Shifting into park, she shut her car off and left the keys in the ignition as she blew a heavy sigh. It was probably for the best that Harvey wasn't up for talking to her anyways, she thought, even if he hadn't seen the press conference the night before –he was sure to have caught parts of it on the news since then. He'd probably have his own fair share of questions regarding why she was openly backing a compromise that wasn't good for anyone.

What could she possibly tell him then? That she was a criminal and had been asked by Don Falcone himself to speak in front of the cameras on the issue? That she'd chosen to betray her family because a crime boss had asked her too? She'd seen the night before just how strongly he felt about organized crime –going so far as to not even eat at a restaurant in either Falcone or Maroni's territories.

Pushing all thoughts of Harvey out of her head, she somehow mustered the strength to push open her car door and step outside, just in time to hear loud thunder rumbling in the distance.

Once she was inside, she took her time walking through the house. Hoping she might encounter Alfred and could ask him just how mad her younger brother was, but unfortunately the butler was nowhere in sight and before long she found herself at the entrance of her fathers office –the room it seemed Bruce was living out of now.

Stepping into the room, she saw him sitting at the desk with a pair of headphones on. As she walked closer she could hear the heavy beat thudding through the small speakers and a look of confusion spread over her face as she realized her brother was listening to metal music. Something completely out of character for him.

Noticing he was no longer alone in the room, he pulled the headphones off his ears and reached down to hit the stop button on the cassette player.

"Since when do you listen to heavy metal?" Bird questioned, as she walked around the desk and scooted back to sit on it, next to the notebook he'd been writing in.

"Since I found the tapes in your old room." He simply answered. There was no need to look up at his sister to know the look of rage she was now surely wearing.

Even though she'd been moved out of the house for years now, she still had a lot of her things in her room there and couldn't stand the thought of anyone going in there to root through things.

"Why were you in my room?" Bird asked through gritted teeth as she tried to remain composed.

"Why did you lie on TV?" He shot back at her as his eyes narrowed in anger.

Bird's eyes also narrowed with the accusation she threw at Bruce, "You're acting like a child."

"I am not!" He yelled, suddenly more enraged with Bird than he had been when he'd first watched the press coverage on television the prior night.

"Are too." She screamed back at him; well aware the statement now made her sound like the childish one.

"How could you do that?" Bruce wasted no time in letting her know the pinpointed reason for the way he was feeling, "You didn't just lie in front of all those cameras. You… you said that mom and dad would have supported that plan and you know it isn't true. They worked so hard to get the Wayne plan to pass, it was so important to them!"

"It sucks, I know that." She lowered her voice, "But this compromise might have very well saved a lot of lives. Political leaders were being killed who supported the opposing plans, Maroni almost got to the mayor."

"Look around, Starling." Bruce yelled, gravel in his tone, "Our parents are gone. They're dead and now something they wanted so badly for this city died with them. How can you even sleep knowing that?"

Her jaw tensed as she stared at her younger brother, she wanted to lash out at him. She was the oldest after all and she really didn't appreciate the disrespectful tone he'd taken with her, but even she couldn't deny that she was deserving of his outburst.

Much like her parents, her brother also wanted a brighter future for Gotham than what the decided compromise could provide. Some days she honestly had trouble believing he was the younger sibling, he carried himself in such a way that possessed a wise-ness far beyond his years.

He seemed to almost understand everything, but Bird knew there were things about _her_ world that he couldn't begin to comprehend.

"Everything they worked for is now falling into the hands of criminals, and you're just letting it happen." He accused, another bout of anger hitting him as he knocked a box of papers off the desk and Bird realized the office was now covered in stacks of boxes; all of them labeled Wayne Enterprises.

On a better day she would have asked him what on earth he'd been spending his time doing, but she knew today he was too angry to have a civil conversation with her and in truth she wasn't feeling so civil herself.

"You don't understand." Bird defended, her arms crossed over her chest as she leered darkly at him.

"Then explain it!" He demanded.

"The short and to the point version, Bruce… is that I was asked to speak at that conference by someone you can't really say no too."

His eyebrows furrowed, but his voice fell back into a suitable volume for speaking to someone in the same room as him, "There is always a choice, Starling. You just made the wrong one."

"See? You just don't get it!" She yelled, "It's so easy to make the hard decisions after-the-fact, and even easier to make them when you're sitting pretty inside these mansion walls."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He questioned, his voice raising again.

Rubbing her forehead she let out a weak laugh as she breathed, "Look, Bruce; you're young and you're smart and I know your heart is in the right place here –but outside the walls of Wayne Manor, there is no black and white. It's an entire world of gray area where the decisions aren't all so easy to make. It's a world where all those books you've read won't help you at all."

"Maybe there's no black and white in a gray area, but there is _always_ right and wrong." He stated, and his words hit her like a ton of bricks. He was right and they both knew it, she was well aware of how badly she'd screwed up.

"You act tough and try to justify your actions, but you know the difference between right and wrong. You must know by now that you did the wrong thing." Bruce said to his older sister in a voice barely above a whisper as his anger started to turn back to into a pit of despair in his soul.

"Right and wrong… sure." She conceded, "But there's still gray between the lines and for some people the paths leading to the good and the bad look too similar to know which path you're on."

Still not willing to give up his end of their fight, he countered, "I don't believe that. Sometimes stepping up and doing what's right can be the hardest thing in the world, but you just do it anyways; because it's the right thing."

"Yeah? Well, sometimes my moral compass goes on the fritz in life and death situations."

The words came out before she could stop them and for a brief and fleeting moment the room fell into a complete dead silence, so much so that neither of them could even hear the flames and wood crackling in the fire place.

"Someone threatened your life?" He gathered, slowly walking closer to her.

"Not directly, but it wasn't hard to understand that what I was being asked to do was much more of an order than a request."

"Who was it?" Bruce asked her.

"It doesn't matter." Bird shrugged, "People like me are built to navigate the gray area and part of that is learning to pick my battles, especially with the most dangerous of people. I know I screwed up, Bruce. I know I let you down, but I did what I had to do to survive. It's not always pretty and sometimes I hate myself for it –but I'm still here. I'm a survivor –it's what I do."

Lightening flashed; violently illuminating the room for a few crackling seconds before another round of thunder shook the glass panes in the large windows.

Blinking from the harsh, bright blows of light from the storm, Bird looked back around the room before she slowly turned to leave.

"It's storming outside." Bruce commented, and Bird literally bit down on the side of her tongue to keep from making a bitchy comment on how he'd just pointed out the single most obvious thing in the world.

When she didn't reply and kept walking away he added, "You can stay until it dies down outside."

"Thanks little brother." She said with an arched brow as she looked over her shoulder as she reached the doorway, "But I think I've already worn out my welcome… and this is Gotham, sometimes the storms seem to last forever."

* * *

 **A/N- Thanks for reading!  
**

 **I owe a huge thank you to Miss E Charlotte, SmellYourScentForMiles, and Love. Fiction .2016 for revewing chapter 9. Glad you're enjoying the story so far. ^_.^**

 **As always reviews are greatly appreciated and you can follow me on tumblr for edits and story related posts. (sagelondyn)**


	11. A Rare Bird

**XI**

 _"The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history." ― Oscar Wilde_

* * *

With a pained groan, Bird opened and closed her left hand again cringing at the pain radiating from her wrist with the movement.

Now standing outside in the pouring rain, staring at her car which was off the road with a busted headlight against the tree she'd ran into –she realized trying to drive home during the worst of the storm was a foolish idea.

Pulling the hood of her jacket up, she crossed her arms over her chest and took to the sidewalk in an attempt to get home and call a tow truck for her car.

Normally her preferred method of moving around the city was on foot and cold days like the current one helped clear her head better than a hot shower; but every drop of rain felt like bullets grazing her skin through the thin fabric of her jacket.

She moved along the city's sidewalks lost more in her head than in her thoughts, her mind was relatively blank as she passed by the other walkers –rather envious of the ones with umbrellas. Even though it would have been a lost cause on her, every inch of her hair and clothing were utterly drenched.

Bird wasn't sure how long she'd been walking when she felt a tightness in her chest, slowing down she pressed a hand to her sternum and for a fleeting second wondered if it was a result of the accident she'd had –that was until her mind started to race and every emotion possible coursed through her veins.

She was scared that Oswald's plan would fail and they'd both be killed for it. She felt guilty for the things she'd said during the press conference and even worse for yelling at her brother who'd done nothing wrong. The ever present mixed feeling of rage and hopelessness sat in the pit of her stomach, weighing her down.

Somehow making her way to the closest bench, she sat down and struggled to pull in a deep breath of the much needed oxygen. Her normally carefully controlled world was spinning out of control, tilted on its axis from all the chaos around her and she was well aware of how chaos was something she didn't handle well. Rubbing the mixture of rain, flop sweat and tears from her face, she internally lectured herself for feeling anything –truth be told, any kind of emotion was something she could barely handle. It always seemed to be at one far end of the spectrum –anger turned to blind rage, sadness gave way to a deep, dark pit of hopelessness she sometimes thought she'd never claw her way back out of.

It was chaos in her mind, always one extreme or another if she didn't keep a tight check on what she was feeling and to keep in control she'd often not allow herself to feel much of anything. Maybe, she considered, maybe that was why when feelings and emotions did break through her barrier they shook her world in ways that left her feeling paralyzed both inside and out.

It was well over an hour later that Bird was still sitting in the same spot on the bench, starring straight in front of her as she fought a war inside of her head. The rain had since stopped, though she had no comprehension of the present time or her surroundings anymore –which is why she didn't hear her name being called several times. She was only brought back to the present when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and the person gently shaking her.

She rubbed her stinging eyes, blinking rapidly to clear her foggy vision before slowly turning her head and seeing who had stopped to check on her.

"Harvey?" She questioned, avoiding eye contact with the assistant district attorney and wondering how long he'd been there.

"What are you doing here?" He questioned, shaking his head as he added, "How long have you been out here… you're completely soaked."

"I…" she managed to choke out, "I don't know."

Turning her head, to focus back on the unreachable point in a plane somewhere other than the one she was on. Her mind started to drift away from her body again, and she missed the alarmed expression on Harvey Dent's face.

"Are you okay?" He asked, shaking her shoulder again to draw her back to their conversation.

Only hearing his voice and not the words being formed, she cut him off as she flatly stated, "I tried to call you."

Moving around the bench, he sat down beside her, turning to get a better look at her as he asked, "Were you out here waiting on me?"

"What?" She questioned, blinking again to focus her eyes. Turning her head she realized just where she was, out in front of the building his office was in.

"No, I didn't even know where I was." She explained, looking back down to her sore wrist with the admission, "I was driving home and my car aquaplaned off the road and into a tree."

"Oh my god!" He exclaimed, his eyes looking her over for any sign of injury. Though with the distant look in her eyes he started to fear she'd hit her head in the accident.

Closing her eyes she pulled in a deep breath and roughly ran her fingers through her tangled, wet hair.

"Did you hit your head?" Harvey asked, earning him a small laugh from Bird who turned to face him as she said, "No, I think I hurt my wrist though."

"Do you want me to call someone for you or take you to the hospital?" He offered.

"There's no one to call." She admitted, shaking her head at the question, "And if I needed a doctor, I would have already found one. I'd hate to be an inconvenience for you."

Immediately catching onto the snappiness of her tone, he realized, "You're mad at me?"

"I'm not mad."

"Good, because as I recall; you're the one who fled from our date to apparently speak at a press conference."

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked over at him.

"Why didn't you just tell me to begin with that you had somewhere else you needed to be?"

"I didn't know what was going on." She admitted, "I just got a call that…" Her voice trailed off, covering her almost slip up by clearing her throat, she lied, "I got a call that the mayor needed to speak to me, that it was urgent and honestly I was panicked. I had no idea what was going on or what could be so important that he'd send a car for me immediately."

He nodded, seeming to accept the lie. It really wasn't too far from the truth, she thought, all she'd done was switch out Falcone's name for the mayor.

"Are you mad at me?" Bird asked, finally looking back in his direction.

"No." He answered, offering her a small smile, "I was actually glad that you called me today."

"Just not enough to answer?"

"For the record, I've been in and out of court all day and spent the afternoon prepping a witness for an upcoming trial. Since then, I've been up to my neck in paperwork and figured I'd just wait the storm out inside. I was going to call you tomorrow."

When she looked at him with raised eyebrows, he gave her his winning smile when he added, "Didn't want to seem too desperate to see you again."

Damn lawyers, she thought to herself; always so smooth. It struck her as oddly funny that she was the criminal and yet, she was often caught wondering how much of what he said was real.

"Are you?" She asked him.

"Desperate?" He questioned, his mouth curving up into a smile as he spotted her dimples with her attempt to not smile back.

"Wanting to see me again?" She clarified.

"Well…" He breathed, "We're both here and I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

The thoughts of food had her stomach growling with hunger pains of her own and if she was with him, she knew she'd have less chance of getting closed off in her own head again and losing time like she'd just done. "I could eat." Bird nodded, trying to not seem to eager herself, "But, I'm hardly dressed for dinner."

Standing up, he held back a laugh as he extended a hand to her and said, "I guess that depends on where you think we're going. I know this great little pizza place just a few blocks away that stays open late."

When she placed her hand in his and he helped her to her feet, he added, "I know it's not where you one-percenters probably choose to eat, but for the night you can live like the other ninety-nine percent of Gotham."

"Hey!" She exclaimed, her mouth dropping open in a state of shock at the comment until she realized he was joking with her and she started to laugh.

He smiled at her, the goal to get her to smile had been a success and the sound of her laugh was starting to sound like music to his ears.

"I was kidding." He laughed, though he was already aware she'd gathered that. As Harvey started to lead her towards the parking garage off to the side of the building where his car was, he continued, "I'm going to guess you stopped living as the one percent when you found work at a nightclub."

"Just stop." She laughed, lightly hitting his arm and shaking her head at him.

 **~()~**

"Are you alright?" Harvey asked, his eyebrows raised slightly as he watched Bird sitting across the table from him –though she seemed to be paying attention to everyone in there except for him.

"Yeah." She nodded, looking back to him as she hugged his jacket he'd offered her, against her trying to stay warm in her still wet clothes, "I feel like everyone in here is staring at us."

The corner of his mouth twitched as he fought back a smile and started to tell her he was pretty sure they were staring at only her, but she cut him off before he had a chance.

"I guess we probably do look like an odd pair." Bird commented, picking up her glass and taking a drink of her soda, before she looked over her shoulder and shot a look to another couple a few booths away who'd been paying more attention to her than they had the pizza on their table.

"How so?" Harvey questioned.

"You're there-" She nodded to him as she spoke, "Dressed in a suit; hair slicked back." Pointing at herself she continued, "Then there's me… who looks like a drowned rat."

Nearly choking on the drink he was in the process of trying swallow, he made some sputtering noises as he laughed and tried to catch his breath.

"You do not look like a drowned rat." He assured her, pausing for effect he added, "Maybe a cat caught out the rain… but not a rat."

The statement earned him a laugh from Bird, as she tucked her still damp hair behind her ears and scooted her glass to the side when their waiter brought their pizza and breadsticks to the table.

"Anyways, I'm relatively sure that everyone is staring at you and not the both of us together." He simply stated, as he watched her grab up a slice of pizza.

Her shoulders rose up some, like she were trying to shield herself as she asked, "Why?"

Eyeing the other customers in the pizza place, he looked back to her, "The news has been showing clips of your press conference all day long."

"Oh my god…" She breathed, lowering her shoulders and no longer seeming to be on edge she realized he was right. "I guess I'm just not used to people recognizing me anymore. The last few years there haven't been many pictures of me in the paper or anything –I pretty much stopped attending any city events after I moved out on my own."

"And it was the mayor's press conference." She corrected.

"You stole the show." Harvey commented, despite her modesty and appearing rather alarmed by the attention she was getting; he had a feeling she already knew her segment of the press conference was the one being focused on and not the mayor's. "You were even on the cover of today's Gotham Gazette. Well, you and a story about how rent prices are still steadily rising."

"I don't typically read the Gazette." Bird said, not admitting out loud that it was typically because nothing in the papers really affected her day to day life.

The couple made small talk as they ate, this time managing to not get into a debate over Gotham's future and if the city could actually be saved.

They'd nearly finished off the pizza when he observed how quiet she was getting, it was clear something was bothering her enough that she seemed to be having trouble staying in the present moment with him.

"Starling?" He questioned.

"Sorry." She breathed, waving a dismissive hand in front of her face.

"It's okay." He softly said, "Something's bothering you, isn't it?"

She nodded before rather violently swiping a breadstick through the cheese dip and taking a bite of it.

"You can tell me." He pointed out, watching her closely as he spoke.

"Ha." She scoffed, rubbing her forehead, "There is so much bothering me right now, I wouldn't even know where to begin."

Nodding in understanding he offered a solution, "You could start with what's bothering you the most."

Taking another drink of her soda, she was silent for what felt like an eternity to him before she admitted, "Sometimes, I look at my thirteen year old brother and see a forty year old man."

"Wow…" Harvey breathed, caught off guard at the comment, "Yeah, I'd say that's disturbing to say the least."

With a loud, almost booming laugh, Bird shook her head back and forth, "No, I just mean that he's thirteen, he's my little brother and he's just this amazing person. I look at him and sometimes I swear to god he's like this grown adult with everything figured out and here I am –actually an adult and some days I do good to remember to eat."

Pulling in a deep breath she continued, "He's just this perfect little mix of everything that was good about our parents –only now he hates me."

With lowered brows, Harvey said, "I'm sure your brother doesn't hate you."

"Well, he certainly isn't fond of me. We got into this huge fight earlier tonight… over that stupid press conference." She admitted to him, her gaze dropping to the half-eaten slice of pizza on her plate she no longer stomach the idea of finishing.

Slowly, he nodded. Remembering what she'd told him earlier and not knowing it had been a lie, he asked, "Did you explain to him that you were asked by the mayor to speak?"

"I tried to explain that I didn't have much of a choice and I know the compromise isn't as good of a plan as the one my parents drew up, but I also don't think it's the worst thing to ever happen to Gotham." Bird answered, "He pretty much said that I did have a choice, that there is always a choice –I just made the wrong one."

"It's a delicate line to walk in Gotham, the line between right and wrong. Sometimes it really comes down to the lesser of two evils." Harvey sympathized.

"He watched our parents die right in front of him and I think after seeing that he feels like there's only right and wrong in the world now. There's no gray area visible to him. There's just innocent and guilty."

Pulling in a deep breath Harvey, gave a small shrug, "Maybe he's right and it really is that simple. I guess it could be argued that the older we get, things aren't so black and white –it blurs into gray. Sometimes I believe we can over complicate matters, instead of just pulling the rope tight we give too much slack."

"Possibly." She nodded in agreement. From personal experience she knew the older she got, the more she found herself crossing lines and pushing boundaries she swore she'd never do.

"I was headed home from talking to him when my car aquaplaned." She added, "As outraged as he was at me, he still tried to get me to wait the storm out there. Clearly, I didn't listen and turns out he was right about that too."

"Give him some time, he'll come around." He said, "He can't stay mad at you forever."

"I know." Bird nodded with a smile that didn't come close to reaching her eyes. Just like her parents did, her brother would forgive and continue to love her –even when she wasn't deserving of it.

"The conference wasn't that bad." He continued to try and make her feel better. Leaning forward over the table some, he added, "A little disheartening; I thought you'd wore that dress for me and not for all of Gotham in front of the cameras."

Her frown turned up into a wide smile as she laughed, "I did! I told you I didn't know about the conference until the phone call."

Picking their dinner check up from the table, he stood up and she followed suit. Smiling to him as she admitted, "I bought that dress specifically for our date."

"Well…" He said, letting his voice trail off before giving her his signature smile and suggesting, "You could wear it on our next date?"

"Please, I'm a one-percenter. You think I'd be caught out in public wearing the same dress twice?" She asked, earning a laugh from him.

 **~(A few days later)~**

Bird walked into the study at Wayne Manor to find her brother, Bruce had a large bulletin board set up with pictures of Maroni and Falcone tacked up along with several printed off emails from Wayne Enterprises and newspaper clippings.

"Oh my god…" She breathed, thinking of how it looked to be a much more organized version of the messy collage Oswald had set up in her apartment, "It looks like my coffee table."

"What?" Bruce asked, turning around to look at his older sister with a confused look on his face.

"What are you doing?" She questioned, stepping closer to get a better look.

"Trying to figure everything out." He vaguely answered, before opening up a blue folder and surveying the contents.

"Are you still mad at me?" Bird asked him, hoping he'd gotten over what she'd said at the press conference days ago.

"Not currently." He answered, falling silent before he said, "I'm sorry for the way I lashed out at you the other day. I still don't entirely understand why you did what you did, but I should have at least listened to your side."

"Besides…" He breathed, looking around at stack after stack of boxes with files and paperwork. "Now, I'm more concerned with trying to find a connection."

"A connection to what?" Bird asked with raised eyebrows.

"The Arkham Plan and the murder of our parents." He stated, as he tacked up another paper to the board.

"Want some help?" She offered, as she picked up a folder from one of the boxes and flipped it open to see the contents as she added, "I know a thing or two about the things that happen in Gotham."

"Yes, I suppose you do." He curtly answered, causing his sister to shoot a look at the back of his head. It was clear he wasn't as over being angry with her as he'd formerly claimed.

"Is that what we're going to do? Make bitchy comments to one another until I finally just storm off? Because if that's the case, I'll just skip to the ending and head back home. I'm meeting someone for lunch later anyways." Bird said, as she dropped the folder back into the box and spun on her heels, headed towards the door to the room.

"Wait." Bruce called after her. He was the one who'd asked her to come around the house more, after all. Flawed or not –he didn't have much family left and much like his parents feared when they were alive; he was always nervous that every time she left after a fight, she might never come back. "I really could use the extra help."

Bird smiled at his words, and started to ask what all he'd pieced together so far when Alfred walked into the room to find the siblings surrounded with what looked to be even more boxes than were there the previous night. He was really starting to wonder where Bruce was dredging them all up from.

"Good morning, Master Bruce." He greeted, before nodding, "And to you Lady Wayne."

"Morning Alfred." Bird replied, as she sat another box up on the coffee table in search of another blue folder.

"I'm glad you're here." He continued watching her, "Perhaps you could help in persuading your brother to get some fresh air. It's a lovely day… fancy a stroll?"

Bird raised her head and looked up as Bruce glanced at her before stating, "I'm busy."

When Alfred looked to Bird for assistance, she gave a small shrug with a smirk as she repeated, "He's busy."

With a sigh, Alfred stepped over a stack of folders on the floor as he said, "I've got a question for you, Master Bruce. What if all of this were a complete and utter, bloody waste of time?" Picking up a folder off the desk Bruce was standing on to reach the top of the board, he continued, "What if you never find out who killed your mum and dad? Hm? What if you never get to reap revenge?"

"I don't want revenge." Bruce said, looking over his shoulder to the remaining members of his family, "I want to understand how it all works; how Gotham works."

With a look of amusement on his face, Alfred commented, "Well, you'd have more chance digging to China with a teaspoon."

"He's not wrong." Bird spoke up, as she carried the box she'd been looking in over to the desk and sat it down with a thud.

"I have to understand it." Her brother asserted, turning to face them as he remained standing on the desktop, "Take the Arkham project for instance. How did both the Falcone and the Maroni crime families get such huge shares of the deal? I mean, I know city hall is corrupt, but why didn't Wayne Enterprises do something?"

The room fell silent and when no one said anything he asked, "Can you pass me that blue folder?"

Bird pulled the folder from her box and handed it to Alfred who was standing closer to her brother, when he passed it on; she pulled in a deep breath and softly pointed out, "City Hall isn't the only source of corruption in Gotham. It runs much deeper than that."

"Are you saying Wayne Enterprises is corrupt?" Her brother asked, a look of shock and disbelief on his face.

"No." She quickly answered, "Or I guess the answer is more-so, that I don't know. What I'm saying is that just became the business bares our family name, doesn't mean we can assume all aspects are entirely legit."

"But what about our father? You think he would have just let the corruption run rampant in his own company?" He questioned her, shaking his head back and forth.

"No." Bird answered.

"Even if there is corruption within the company doesn't mean your father had to be involved, or even knowledgeable of such matters, Master Bruce." Alfred tried to assure him, though he couldn't deny that what Bird said could hold some weight.

Taking a deep breath he added, "But I've found there's always a chance of a few bad apples when it comes to a large group of people."

"You both think there could be criminals working within the company?" Bruce asked them.

"If there is… the bad apples would have to be in positions of power. Maybe even board level chairman." Bird suggested.

"I haven't any idea in the slightest." Alfred replied, looking back around the room as he added, "But, I suppose as hobbies go this is a damn slight better than burning yourself like a bloody pork chop."

"Still not the healthiest option though, is it?"

When neither Wayne sibling responded to him, and he looked around to find them both with their noses buried folders. He turned and headed for the door to leave them to it, pausing he called out, "Are you listening to me, Master Bruce?"

"Yes Alfred, I'll take a walk later." He mumbled, not looking up as he spoke.

Several minutes later, Bird climbed up on the desk with him and tacked a picture of the mayor she'd cut out of a newspaper article onto the board.

"Mayor James?" Bruce asked. He'd of course had his suspicions the mayors interests weren't always in what was best for the people of Gotham, but it was still unsettling to know someone who held such a high position of power in their city was so unethically driven.

"Yes." Bird nodded, "He's as corrupt as they come. Even so… personally, I feel he's more of pawn though."

"For Falcone?" He asked.

"And now for Maroni as well, he was strong armed into that compromise. He didn't have the balls to stand against Maroni after he sent an assassin after him and so the Wayne plan lost."

Taking a step back, Bruce eyed the board and everything they'd pinned up as he observed, "Somedays, like today… it feels like everyone should be on this board."

"Most days they probably should." Bird agreed, dropping the folder in her hands to the top of the desk before jumping down and extending a hand to her brother to help him down.

"What?" He asked, slowly walking closer to her.

"Come on. I'm taking you out for breakfast and then we're gonna go for that walk you promised Alfred you'd take." She said, helping him down off the desk.

"And then after?" Bruce asked her, "We'll come back here and add more clippings to the board. Though, I think by the time I leave for my lunch date, we'll probably need a bigger board."

* * *

 **A/N- I hope you all liked the chapter.  
**

 **Thanks to Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai and Love. Fiction. 2016 for reviewing chapter 10. ^_^**


	12. Dead Girl Walking

**XII**

 _"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."_ _― Robert Frost_

* * *

"Hey! Sorry I'm late." Bird spilled an apology as she slid into the booth seat across the table from Harvey Dent. In truth she'd have made it there on time if she hadn't taken a long way around, trying to lose a car she was sure was tailing her from the street outside of Wayne Manor.

With a smile he assured her, "I just got here myself, my trial ran a little later than I'd expected."

"Are you winning the case?" She asked, as she opened the lunch menu and scanned it.

"I think so." He smiled, "But then again I've learned when it comes to prosecuting criminals there's no such thing as a sure-thing."

"Probably depends on who their connections are." She anteed with raised eyebrows, before looking back down to her menu.

"You're in a much better mood today." He observed, as he opened his own menu.

"I spent the morning with my brother." She admitted, laughing as she joked, "Decided to give Alfred the morning off."

"Who's Alfred?" Harvey questioned.

"My family's butler and now my brothers legal guardian." She explained, speaking as if it were not only completely normal to not only have a butler, but also commonplace for them to be left custody of minors upon the parent's death.

"I'm sorry…" Harvey breathed with a look of confusion, "Did you just say your parents left your younger brother in the care of the butler?"

Bird laughed, "He's part of the family and honestly, I don't think there's a better person for the job. I really feel like Bruce is safe with him –Alfred used to serve in the British Special Air Service.

The smile faded from her lips some as she added, "I guess it pretty much came down to either Alfred or me and they made the right choice. I'm the last person who should be left in charge of someone else's well-being. When I got my own apartment, my mom bought me some furniture and for some reason she got me this plant too, I'm not sure why. But I fought for months trying to keep that plant alive and then one day, I left the window open and then Shark got inside from the fire escape and ate half of it."

"Shark?" Harvey asked, having an unusually hard time following her train of thoughts and conversation.

"Yeah, this cat that hangs around outside of my building. Every time I leave my living room windows open the damn thing gets inside."

"Why did you name a cat Shark?" He pushed for more info to fully understand the origin of the name.

"The name is well earned; whenever he gets inside he tends to leave bloody corpses of mice or small birds on my floor." She answered with a shrug, "I guess he's trying to bring me gifts or something, I don't know…" Her voice trailed off as she saw the look of disgust on his face, "And this totally isn't a conversation to have over lunch."

Nodding in agreement, Harvey pulled in a deep breath before saying, "Well, I'm glad to hear things are better between you and your brother."

"Me too." She nodded, remaining silent as she stared back down at her menu with the feeling if she opened her mouth another inappropriate conversation topic would slide out before she could stop herself.

"So I take it he's over being mad about the press conference?" Harvey asked, trying to keep her talking.

"He's still upset about it, but I think he's starting to see that Gotham City is one gigantic gray area. He pulled all of these boxes of files and papers concerning our dad's company and he's been trying to organize things and figure out how Gotham works." She explained, with a small smile.

"That's an awfully large task for anyone, let alone a thirteen year old." Harvey commented.

"That's true." She nodded, before giving him a look as she added, "But Bruce isn't your average thirteen year old. He's a Wayne… he's my father's son in every sense of the term."

The couple ordered their food and growing tired of talking about herself, Bird quizzed him for some info on his current case. But about all the information she could get out of him was that he considered the criminal he was prosecuting to be less than human and if the jury found him innocent he'd be close to losing any and all faith in the justice system.

Bird's eyes drifted past him to where the same car she'd seen tailing her earlier was parking outside of the small sandwich shop right next to where she'd parked. With the sun glaring in her eyes, she was pretty sure she could make out two human figures inside the tinted windows.

Picking her purse up, she found her cellphone to see if she had any missed calls from anyone –briefly she thought maybe Falcone had another favor to ask of her, but he was cordial enough to at least call and let her know he was sending a car ahead of time.

She had no idea who the two men were that got out and looked at her car for a brief minute before they both turned to face the restaurant. Both of them were dressed in dark clothes and she could easily tell they both had at least one handgun on them.

Looking back to Harvey she nodded and smiled, hoping it was an appropriate response to what he'd been saying; his words had fallen on deaf ears ever since she spotted the dark car.

When the men started for the door, she stood up and watched as they both slowed to a stop like they were trying to figure out her next move.

"Everything alright?" Harvey questioned, standing up with her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I, uh…" Her voice trailed off as she glanced around, "I'll be right back."

Sitting back down in his seat he watched as she headed towards the small back hallway with a sign overhead pointing customers that way for the restroom. Despite her saying she'd return shortly, he already had a feeling like their lunch date was over.

Bird checked over her shoulder to make sure that Harvey hadn't followed her, before she ducked into the kitchen and pushed through the small group of kitchen staff until she reached the back exit.

Reaching into the interior pocket on her jacket, she pulled out the smooth metal cased switchblade knife that she'd stolen from Oswald years back the first time they'd crossed paths.

Tucking her hands behind her she causally leaned against the rough brick building, until she spotted one of the men rounding the corner.

Giving him a wide smile she commented with an arched brow, "And here I'd started to get comfortable, it's rude to keep a lady waiting, you know?" Noticing he was alone she asked, "So, where's your boyfriend?"

He gawked at her with a slightly jumbled expression; seeming taken aback by her attitude and words.

"Why are you following me?" She questioned, the smile still on her lips, but venom seeped from her tone as she stared him down.

"Miss Wayne-"

"It's Bird." She hissed.

"Bird." The man nodded apologetically, "I need you come with me, nice and quiet."

"Nice and quiet?" She repeated back amused, "Clearly you don't know me."

"Relax…" He said taking a step forward.

"I wouldn't come any closer." She asserted, changing her stance and moving her hand around front as she flipped the knife open.

Now it was his turn to look amused as he retrieved the gun he'd had tucked in the waistband of his pants and cynically teased, "Hasn't anyone ever taught you not to bring a knife to a gun fight?"

With a smirk displayed on her lips, Bird shrugged, "Hasn't anyone ever taught you that with guns it's better to have distance?"

"Is that so?" He laughed.

"Yeah." she nodded, "See in a little over a second the average person can run about twenty-one feet. That's more than enough time for me to stick my favorite knife deep into your carotid and watch you writhing in pain until you bleed out –before I go back inside and finish my lunch that you have so rudely interrupted."

Looking dumbfounded by the facts she'd just laid on him, he opened his mouth to say something but before he could Bird knocked the gun from his hand, stomped down on his foot and as he crumpled over in pain she delivered a very painful blow of her elbow to his back bringing him down to the ground.

His eyes quickly located his gun but before he could grab it, she kicked it out of his reach just behind where she was standing.

"Hey, hey, hey!" A male voice yelled, just as Bird got the man on the ground raised up had pressed the knife to the front of his neck deciding to go for jugular if she had too.

Bird looked over to see another man running towards them as he drew his own gun.

"Take another step and I'll splay his neck wide open." She warned.

"You need to calm down, we're not here to hurt you." The one holding the gun said as he slowed some but continued closing in on them.

"Yeah?" She asked with a loud, maniacal laugh. Her eyes were pulled down to where she had the one knelt in front of her, he was slowly reaching into his jacket after what she could only guess was another weapon.

Knowing she had to act fast and precisely; she stabbed a short amount of her blade into a cluster of nerves residing just under the shoulder muscle. With a loud cry of pain his whole body went limp and as she withdrew her knife, she dropped to the ground, spinning on the pavement and picking up the gun; with lightning fast speed she was back on her feet.

The one on the ground continued to yell out in pain as he lay helplessly on the ground and his partner stared at Bird in shock.

"Why are you following me?" Bird yelled, despite the hysterical tone her voice had taken, her hand holding the gun didn't tremble in the slightest. Her posture and the look in her eyes showed she could put a bullet in both of their heads and not even blink.

"Oswald Cobblepot." The man answered as he pulled a cellphone from his pants pocket.

"What about him?" She demanded to know.

"You need to come with us now… or we're gonna chop off his head, put it in a bag and send it Falcone."

"You can't kill someone who's already dead, dumbass." Bird spat at him, keeping her composure despite the fact her mind was now racing and the acid was souring in her stomach.

"Not a fan of Penguin?" The guy guessed at her unwillingness to come with him to save his life, "I get it, truth is I don't much care for him either –but here we both are and I'm just trying to do my job."

When Bird didn't flinch or give any indication his words were resonating with her, he let out a heavy sigh. He was quickly growing tired of not only her stubbornness, but the way his boss was putting so much time and energy into finding out if Cobblepot's story had any truth.

His gaze remained heavy on her as he called out, "See the problem here is you think you're running the show. You think cause you brought one of my men down that you've won." When she didn't budge, he held the phone out to the side and shook it as he said, "Your boyfriend in there, he a lawyer? He looks like the lawyer type. One call to the driver in our car out front and-"

His threat came to an abrupt stop and he jumped what felt like at least ten feet into the air at the loud crack of a gunshot. For a moment he thought he'd been shot until he looked over to see the screen of his flip-phone had been shot clear off.

"Who do you work for?" Bird asked, her voice eerily calm now as she stared him down.

"Sal Maroni." He answered, swallowing hard as he spoke.  
His orders of bringing her in unharmed was going to be nearly impossible. At this rate he was thinking it was going to take a bullet or two to bring her down, his eyes dropped to her legs as he considered a blown kneecap would severely debilitate her.

Bird held her breath for so long that she felt like her head was going to explode right off her shoulders. They were supposed to have another week until Oswald finally admitted who he was, they were supposed to have more time and more importantly give her a heads up about it.

As much as she wanted to just kill both of them, take out their driver and forget about this stain on an otherwise perfect day –she knew doing so wouldn't only get her best friend killed, but it would surely earn another round of Maroni's people after her.

"Alright!" She yelled, as she tossed the gun in her hand to the side and held her hands up in surrender.

"Just like that?" He asked cautiously, as he slowly advanced towards her.

"Out of respect to the Don of course." She stated flatly, with a raised eyebrow.

 **~()~**

Oswald sat slumped down in a chair next to Don Maroni, who'd just been served a large plate of freshly steamed lobster.

His head was still spinning and aching from Maroni's outburst at learning who Oswald really was, an outburst which had resulted in the crime boss slamming Oswald's face down on the table so hard he'd thought for sure his skull had to be fractured. He could feel blood still dripping from his nose and he was afraid if he breathed wrong it might upset the Don.

Hearing the door open he looked over to see them dragging a man in with a black cloth bag over his head. It had to be Jim Gordon, he thought. In an attempt to have his own life spared he'd told the story of how Falcone had sentenced him to death but a rookie detective had spared his life.

He was relieved to see they'd fetched Jim, considering he'd dropped a few other names, well mainly just one other, out of fear for his life and he knew Bird was going to be mad enough when she learned he'd jumped the gun and moved on with his plan a week sooner than they'd decided.

The room fell into silence after the hood was removed from Jim's head and he looked around startled to see Maroni staring him down as he cracked open one of the lobsters, the cracking of the shell in such a silent room was comparable to bones being broke. Jim looked over to Oswald hoping for some clue of what the hell was happening, but Oswald wouldn't make eye contact with him.

It felt like an eternity had passed with the three men sitting at the table, Oswald seemed afraid to look at any person in the room and Jim found himself unable to look away as Maroni continued to crack open more lobster to eat.

"Don M-Maroni-" Was all Oswald could stutter out, before the Don yelled, "Shut up!"

Cowering back down in his seat, he wondered what was taking so long. He thought they might have brought Jim there to corroborate his story –now he was starting to fear Maroni might have some other plans.

Wiping his hands on the large cloth napkin tucked at the collar of his shirt, Maroni raised a hand in the air and his right hand man Frankie Carbone stepped up to see what his boss needed.

"Where's Angelo?" Maroni asked.

"Calls are going straight to voicemail, boss." He quietly answered back.

"Keep calling, he should have been here by now." Maroni instructed, before shooting a smile at Jim as he stated, "We can't start without having everyone here."

"Who is everyone exactly?" Jim asked, feeling like he had a lump in his throat that wouldn't let his voice pass through.

All his question earned was a harsh look from Maroni, before he went back to his lobster dinner.

It was several minutes later that the door finally opened and in walked Angelo with a tight grip on the arm of a female with a black bag over her head as well. Leading her to the table he, harshly instructed her to sit down before pulling the bag off of her head.

Bird looked around the table and let out a sigh as she rubbed her forehead, thinking Oswald had most likely gotten all three of them killed. She was so mad that she didn't feel the least bit bad at seeing he'd been beaten and was bloody.

"Welcome." Maroni said looking between Bird and Jim, who were seated next to each other facing him, "I'm Salvatore Maroni."

Bird remained quiet, but Jim spoke up, "I know who you are… what do you want?"

He started to explain to the pair why they'd pulled away from their usual afternoon plans, until the door opened again and another of his men came stumbling in, holding his left arm against himself and appearing to be in pain.

Looking to Angelo, Maroni asked, "What the hell happened to Jessie?"

"That… bitch…" Jessie answered, pointing with his good arm to where Bird was sitting as he hissed between his teeth, "Stabbed me."

"Self-defense." Bird shrugged, not making eye contact with Maroni when he looked back at her.

Looking between his man Jessie who was larger than Bird in both size and stature, he looked back to the young woman who didn't appear to have a scratch on her as he asked, "How the hell did that happen?"

"There was an incident, boss." Angelo explained, before shamefully admitting, "She brought Jessie down and… got his gun."

Looking at her, Don Maroni gruffly asked, "You tried to kill my men?"

"I didn't know who they worked for. In my defense, I asked several times who sent them for me and the only answer I got was that I needed to come with them." Adjusting in her seat, she nodded to Angelo and admitted, "I also shot his phone when he threatened the life of my date."

"Date?" Oswald asked, his voice came out as a squeak and got the attention of everyone in the room, besides Bird who still refused to look at him.

The atmosphere in the room changed as Don Maroni wiped his lobster buttered fingers on his napkin and said, "You shot at my men, that's unacceptable."

"I didn't know who they were or what they wanted, they tailed me from my family's house to a sandwich joint and then showed me a gun and told me to come with them. As soon as I was informed they were sent by you, I surrendered the gun and willingly went with them." With a nod she added, "Out of respect for you, of course."

The room fell silent and Oswald swallowed repeatedly trying to clear his throat and think of something to say to help Bird out, who seemed like she was on the verge of being handed a death sentence. That was until Maroni slammed his hand down on the table, causing Oswald, Jim and Bird to all jump. But instead of lashing out in anger, he had quite the opposite reaction as he let out a loud booming laugh that almost seemed to shake the china on the table as much as his fist had.

"I'm just…" He breathed between laughs, "I'm just trying to wrap my head around how she even got an attack in on Jessie, I mean look at them!" Looking down to his plate he held up the largest lobster on the spread as he boomed a laugh, "I've seen lobster bigger than her!"

A few of his guys laughed, but the three people being held against their will at the table didn't even crack a smile at the joke.

Directing his attention back to her and still coming down from the fit of laughter he asked, "You work for Fish Mooney, right? Sweetheart, what is it you do exactly?"

"It's Bird." She corrected, causing Oswald's eyes to nearly bug out of his head as he shook his head back and forth –she was clearly in no position to be correcting the Don.

With a look of sheer amusement on his face, he nodded, "Right, right… Bird, sweetheart, what is it that you do for Fish?"

Her jaw tensed, but she didn't dare correct him twice despite how demeaning the term sounded from him. "I'm the one who sends our alcohol orders to your people. I've also been known to mix a mean drink when I'm left to the tend the bar, and sometimes… I just bus the tables."

"That!" He exclaimed pointing to her, as he glanced back to his handful of men standing guard behind him, "Is a shame. That's just wasted talent my friends."

Bird glanced over beside her when she felt Jim was watching her, one look at his face and she knew they were both wondering the same thing. Only this time the detective didn't speak and it was Bird who simply asked, as though the answer wasn't of importance, "Don Maroni, are you going to kill us?"

Eyeing the young woman for quite some time, he tilted his head to the side as he answered truthfully, "That depends on all of you."

When he had their attention, he continued, "Here's the thing –the reason I've brought you both here is-"

"Just tell the truth." Oswald pleaded, before he could stop himself. He knew he was already sitting in a dangerous position and he needed to keep his mouth shut. A fact confirmed when Maroni showed him one of the most hateful looks he'd ever seen.

"Either of you want a drink?" Maroni asked, his voice calm as he looked back to Jim and Bird, "I'm having a Negroni; so good with seafood." He said motioning to his plate before taking a drink of the pink liquid in his glass.

"Sure, sounds good. Thank you." Bird nodded, and felt Jim's eyes on her again before he somehow got his cotton-dry mouth to make a sound and he answered, "Water."

Nodding, Maroni snapped his fingers and one of his men disappeared into the kitchen to get their drinks.

Jim looked around, he wasn't sure what was more unnerving –knowing he could be minutes away from meeting his fate; or how Bird seemed almost too comfortable in such a dyer situation. Maybe she knew something he didn't, she always seemed to know something more than he did –or maybe Bullock was right and she really was crazy.

He eyed her again, before glancing over his shoulder towards the kitchen to see it appeared to be fully staffed. They'd taken his gun when they got him into the car on the way there, and the only exits were both heavily guarded by armed men.

"So, Penguin here told us a fascinating story. I've never heard a story so good." Holding his hands out to the side he added, "Hard to believe it's true."

With fear widened, red rimmed eyes, Oswald stammered, "It is! It is true, every word is true-"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Maroni shouted, as he pointed a finger in Oswald's face, who immediately slunk down in his chair and pinned his eyes shut, like he was preparing for another beating.

Bird jerked forward in her seat, and Jim's gaze darted her way when he heard what sounded to be comparable to a low growl slide from between her teeth. Luckily, it was a noise Maroni couldn't hear over his own voice as he continued to shout.

Picking up one of the large lobster claws off his plate, Maroni pressed it hard against Oswald's cheek as he yelled, "One more word from you and I'll shove this down your throat."

In response, his body trembled as he nodded frantically and tried to lean his head away from the claw.

Dropping it to his plate with a loud clank, he made a face as he had to wipe more butter off his hands. It was then that he saw Bird was on the edge of her seat, eyes locked on Oswald with an arm on the table in front of her with her hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist.

"Alright there, babes?" Maroni questioned.

Her eye twitched with rage at all the pet names he insisted on calling her, simply because she was a female.

"I was just thinking that I don't even know what a Negroni is and I could have probably whipped one up faster than your guy." She managed to say, as she slowly released her fist to see her short nails had started to cut into the palm on her hand.

Leaning back in his chair with a laugh, Maroni pointed at her as he observed, "This one's a firecracker."

It was then that the man emerged from the kitchen and sat an orange slice garnished glass down in front of Bird with the same pink liquid as was in Maroni's glass before setting a glass of ice water down in front of Jim.

Pulling in a deep breath, Bird laid her palms flat against the table and tried to focus solely on the feeling of the white threaded table cloth under her touch. She needed to calm down, needed to remain focused and not let emotion get the best of her. The only way to survive this situation would be to remain in complete control.

Finally exhaling she opened her eyes and picked up the glass in front of her, briefly sniffing it before taking a drink small enough it barely wet the tip of her tongue. There was a definite bitter orange taste to the drink, which she quickly identified as Campari –which almost seemed over powering, but it was mixed with something sweet that left a nice buzz of bitter and sweet on her taste buds.

With eyebrows raised in surprise, she took another drink and looked to Maroni as he shot another threatening look in Oswald's direction before commenting to the room, "I try to be civil, but I'm not the kind of man who likes to ask twice."

When he was sure all eyes were back on him, Maroni picked back up, "So this story Penguin told me. Really was one hell of a story –dropping names like Falcone and Fish Mooney." Nodding to Jim and Bird he added with lowered brows as he removed the napkin from his collar, "Wayne and one of the cops responsible for taking down the Wayne's killer. So you can see why it sounds more fiction than fact."

"No, slow down Mr. Maroni… I don't-" Jim started to try and talk his way out of everything, but he didn't get the chance. As Maroni slammed his fist down on the table and yelled, "No, no, no. NO! You let me finish. You'll have your turn to speak."

Bird glanced at Jim before taking another drink from her glass; even if she did die that night at least she was going out with a good drink –which was more than most could say.

With terror in his eyes, Oswald raised his head and looked over to Bird and Jim –the two people who now held his fate in their hands. He trusted Bird more than anyone, he knew no matter how mad she was at him she'd still do what she could to save him and Jim Gordon had already saved his life once.  
He hated being in the position of his fate resting on someone else's shoulders –but then again even he had to admit it might just be better there than on his own.

"Okay." Maroni sighed, when no one else made an attempt to talk, he focused back on the pair across the table from him. "This story he told me, well you're both in it and I want you to tell me the same _exact_ story."

Bird stared at Maroni as she took another sip from her glass and Jim's gaze fell to the table, knowing that what he said next could very well seal the fate of everyone in the room. He found the strength to question, "What story is that?"

"Oh, you better know what story my friend; because if you tell me the same story he told me, then I can believe it's true. Then I'm happy, but if you tell me another story… _oh mama_ …" He breathed looking up to the ceiling before focusing back on them, "Then I'll know someone is lying to me and I won't know who it is, so all of yous will die"

"Do I make myself clear?" He questioned.

"Crystal." Bird nodded, as she downed another swig of her drink and wondered if it might just be her last.

"Got it." Jim agreed with an unsure nod of his own.

With a smile, Maroni adjusted and leaned back in his seat as he took a drink of his Nagroni and said, "Tell me a story then."

Jim looked over to Oswald, who was hunched down in his seat staring back at him through the blood stiffened hair that was hanging in front of his eyes from the beating he'd taken. He hoped and even found himself praying that Jim told the truth and it was what Maroni wanted to hear. As much as he knew Bird would do what she could to help him, he'd also seen her pushing her luck with Maroni since she'd been brought there.

"Somebody murdered Bird's parents." Jim said sitting stiffly in his seat as he nodded to the young brunette seated beside him, "My partner and I caught the case."

"We didn't even know each other back then!" Oswald piped up in a shaky voice before he could stop himself. Don Maroni wasn't the most patient man in the universe and the last thing they needed was Jim telling him some long, drawn out story that wasn't even relevant to saving his life.

"What did I say?" Maroni shouted, his voice so loud Jim could have sworn he saw the exposed bulb chandelier above them start to shake.

"The GCPD and Gotham needed a fall guy to-" Bird started to blurt out, and for the moment Oswald thought he was saved until Maroni ignored what she had to say and instructed Frankie, "Put him on the slicer."

"What?" Oswald nearly cried, before breaking into a stuttering fit of yelling no repeatedly.

As Frankie dragged her best friend into the kitchen behind where they were sitting, Bird jumped to her feet, but was met by an array of guns pointed at her from his guards as Maroni yelled, "No! Sit down!"

Swallowing hard she dropped straight back down into her seat, with her hands clenched by her sides under the table as Maroni called out, "If I don't like what babes here has to say, slice his face… prejute!"

He held his hand up signaling for his men to lower their weapons, before he motioned to Bird and said, "You were saying?"

Swallowing hard she internally cursed herself, emotionally she was all over the grid despite her best efforts to control her impulses.

Calm, cool and collected –she told herself, that was the only way any of them were leaving this place alive.

"I was a pawn in a conspiracy between Falcone, the mayor and the GCPD." Jim spoke up, when he noticed Bird who'd formally been more composed than him now appeared to be on the verge of either an outburst or a breakdown. He wasn't sure which one, but it was easy to tell something was brewing beneath the surface.

"What kind of conspiracy?" Maroni questioned.

"To frame Mario Pepper for the Wayne murders –with the help of Fish Mooney, who was Mr. Cobblepot's employer at the time." Jim answered.

"See here's where it all starts to get a little murky." Maroni said with a shake of his head, "According to Penguin, you knew about this from the beginning. That Pepper was a pansy."

Realizing he was now speaking to her, Bird raised her head to meet his gaze as she nodded, "That's correct."

"Are you saying you helped with framing someone innocent to take the fall for your own parent's murders?" Maroni pushed, leaning forward as he eyed her suspiciously.

"The orders came straight from Falcone himself and Pepper was hardly what I'd call innocent." Bird stated, her tone now seeming unemotional and her eyes took on a distant look as she glanced over at Jim before continuing, "My parent's murders sent most of Gotham spiraling into chaos and the only way to start resolving the situation was for the public to believe their killer had been found and captured. Falcone is a businessman after all… and chaos is bad for business."

"Ooh…" Maroni breathed, shaking his head back and forth as he watched her, "That's cold."

Her eyes dropped to the table and her voice sounded strange to her own ears as she repeated one of Falcone's mottos, "Business must come first."

Jim's eyebrows furrowed as he watched Bird. Despite knowing she worked for the Falcone Crime Family and clearly had both her priorities and morals all jumbled up and out of whack, he couldn't help but sympathize with her and the things he'd learned about her.

Even though she spoke in such a manner that the bad she'd done didn't bother her, and she'd taken her orders in doing what was best for the business –he noticed the way she almost appeared to be sinking down in her seat. Her arms folded over her midsection and head lowered, it reminded him of a wounded animal. The pain he'd seen in her eyes had haunted him.

"Anyways…" Bird breathed, not raising her head, "Like Jim said, Oswald worked for Fish at the time. He was her umbrella boy –always right there beside her, privy to all sorts of information. That's how he knew about the conspiracy and so he went and told the entire story to some detectives. Needless to say, word got back to Fish and Falcone of how he'd betrayed them and well you know what happens to snitches."

"I do." Maroni agreed, his expression not giving much away in the way of letting them know if they were on the right track.

"I was ordered by Falcone to kill Cobblepot. I couldn't very well betray the conspiracy and leak anything about the framing of Pepper if they had something to hold over my head. A crime like murder." Jim let the spotlight fall on him as he tried to finish up the story, knowing by this point Maroni already knew whether the trio would live or die. Sighing he added, "I didn't kill him, obviously, I let him live… and now here we are."

Raising her head and nodding, Bird repeated in a somber tone, "Here we are."

Maroni stared at them both, a deadpan expression giving no indication as to if the pair had sealed their fates. Leaning forward he picked up the cloth napkin and whipped his mouth before asking, "Falcone, Mooney, the cops… none of them know he's alive?"

"If they did I'd be dead already." Jim pointed out, drinking down the last of his water as he awaited the Don's reaction.

The chair creaked under Maroni as his body shook from laughing. Laughs which grew louder with every breath he took as he looked between them.

"It's delicious!" He exclaimed, looking between them before sliding his chair back and standing up as he called out, "Frankie, bring the Penguin back out here. The little punk is telling the truth!"

Leaning back down he said, "Thank you both. Good story, great story and told well. Most people in your situation would have freaked out."

Letting out a heavy sigh of relief, Jim hung his head and pulled in a deep breath knowing it wouldn't be last one after all.

Bird stared as Oswald stumbled over to the table, looking so weak he could barely stand.

"There you are!" Maroni said, as Oswald reached the table finally, "You snitch, you rat, you gorgeous turncoat son of a bitch. Come here I love you!" He said, as he placed his hands on the sides of Oswald's face moments before planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Be happy Frankie, we just got ourselves a brand new weapon against the Falcones." Maroni said to his right hand man as he put an arm around Oswald's shoulders and pulled him against his side.

Jim scooted his chair back away from the table clearly ready to leave and convinced the situation was over.  
Oswald looked to still be in a great deal of pain, but the bliss of living to see another day was present.

Maroni was nothing short of ecstatic and most of his men seemed to feel the same way. It was a joyous moment for everyone –everyone except for Bird, who remained seated at the table as she reached out with a slightly shaky hand for her glass, needing another drink.

As Maroni continued talking about how great it was that Oswald's story checked out, Jim started to stand up until he noticed Bird hadn't budged.

Reaching over he nudged her arm, thinking her sullen mood was because of everything she'd had to dredge up and admit too. "Hey, it's okay… for today at least we've dodged a bullet." He tried to assure her.

"It isn't okay." Bird whispered back as she turned her head to face him and he saw her red, rimmed watery eyes as she was clearly fighting against showing any emotion.

Thinking that she was finally about have that breakdown he'd sensed earlier, he scooted his chair closer he breathed, "I know you just went through hell, but now is not the time to do this. Hold it together until we get out of here."

"I'm not getting out of here." She stated, her voice so soft he could barely hear her. Taking another drink from her glass she pointed out with a weak, saddened smile, "I work for Fish Mooney, I just admitted to Maroni that I chose the Falcone Crime Family over my _own_ family. You think he's just going to let me live and trust that I won't say anything to Falcone?"

Seeing the realization slowly sink in as his blue eyes widened, she motioned to herself as she said, "Dead girl walking."

* * *

 **A/N- First off, I owe Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, Love. Fiction. 2016, and guest a huge thank you for reviewing chapter 11. Your support just means everything to me!**

 **Secondly, my amazing bestie Miss E Charlotte has made a video for this story and I've probably watched it a thousand times already. Lol. If anyone wants to see it, you can find it on her Youtube account or her Tumblr (missecharlotte) and I've also reblogged it on my own Tumblr (sagelondyn), where you can find edits I've made as well!**

 **Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please take a few moments of your time to leave a review. ^_.^**


	13. Playing the Part

**XIII**

 _Virtue has a veil, vice a mask. - Victor Hugo_

* * *

Bird slowly rose to her feet and stood next to where she'd been seated next to Jim; who since realizing she might not be in the clear had remained by her side.

Oswald's body was tense and his heart still beating wildly in his chest, seeing as how he'd just came out on top of a life and death situation he should have been feeling that second chance at life high, but not this time. Maybe he was just too sore from the beating Maroni had given him or possibly it was because everything in his world had just changed and for the time being –he wasn't sure if the change was for better or worse.

After what felt like an eternity of Don Maroni holding him tightly against his side as he bragged to all of his men about their new weapon against Falcone, the Don finally released his uncomfortably tight hold on Oswald and he stumbled a few steps back, looking over to where Jim and Bird were both standing, he silently mouthed _'thank you'_ to the pair who'd just saved his life.

Instead of being met by equally relieved expressions, he could see the color had drained from their faces. Jim returned the gratitude with a small, curt nod and Bird's eyes seemed vacant of all emotion as she looked at him –though it felt more like she was staring right through him.

Looking at Jim, Maroni said, "Just so we understand each other… keep all of this hush-hush, between us pals. If I need you again I'll call you."

"You do that." Jim stated in a flat voice.

Motioning to Frankie Carbone, Don Maroni said, "Give him a lift back to the station."

"I'm not leaving without her." Jim argued, nodding to where Bird stood beside him.

"Always the hero." Bird commented with a half-smile before shaking her head and saying, "You should probably go, before he changes his mind."

"What's the matter, Jim?" Maroni asked, with a smile. Still nothing short of ecstatic over the way the day had turned out, "I said if your stories matched with Penguins, everything would be good. Don't think I'm a man of my word?"

"I think you've probably got some doubts on where my loyalty lies. I did just admit to you that I chose Falcone's Crime Family over my own family when it came to going along with the conspiracy to frame someone for my parent's murders." Bird spoke up, glancing over at Oswald as she spoke to let him know the dire situation his attempt to save his own life had put her in.

Thought it didn't seem possible, she could have sworn his face suddenly looked paler than normal, making the crimson stains on his skin appear much darker than they did just moments before.

"You've caught me." Maroni commented with a laugh, "I have been trying to figure out your next move; if I let you leave here."

"She's not going to say anything!" Oswald practically squeaked out, hobbling back up to Maroni's side. The hair in his face swept in front of his eyes when he quickly looked between Maroni and Bird, any relief he'd been currently feeling was long since passed and replaced with the fear that he'd just gotten Bird killed. "She's known this whole time and hasn't told anyone; not a soul."

"Yeah, but the game's changed now, hasn't it?" Frankie commented. To be honest he didn't care whether the girl died or not, but he really didn't like Oswald already and it was entertaining to see him squirming in his skin all over again.

"Yes it has Frankie." Maroni agreed, keeping his eyes on Bird as he spoke to Oswald, "Before she was just keeping a secret for the sake of a friend, but now it's bigger than that. Now it's her keeping the knowledge that I've got a weapon against the crime boss she's proven herself loyal to."

"She won't say anything. Don Maroni, I swear it on my own life she will say nothing of today to Falcone." Oswald pleaded, wondering if his voice sounded as weak as it did to his own ears.

"Look at these two!" Maroni boomed a laugh as he spoke, "Penguin and Bird –these two are a trip." He said, remembering back to just several minutes before when the tables had been turned and Bird was doing everything she could to save Oswald.

"Don Maroni." Bird spoke, clearing her throat before she continued, "There's something you should know about me."

"And what's that?" He questioned, glancing to his side when he saw Oswald shaking his head back and forth; thinking for sure that Bird was likely going to end up saying the wrong thing.

"I live in a small one bedroom apartment, I still drive the same car I got from my parents as a teenager. You see, my parents and I didn't get along very well and since I moved out when I turned eighteen, I probably only saw them a handful of times." Keeping her voice steady and constant eye contact to sell the lie as fact, she continued, "When they died, they didn't leave me a penny. Everything went to my little brother. I'm not working for Fish Mooney because of loyalty, I'm there because I have bills and rent to pay and it's really nice to be able to afford to eat. I keep my head down, I do my job and I stay to myself."

She looked around at the gathered group in the room before taking a breath and continuing, "So sure, if Falcone asks a favor out of me… who am I to say no? But that doesn't mean I'm going to go out of my way to try and show some loyalty to him that I don't have. Everything that was said here today will never leave this room."

"Besides…" She breathed, "If Falcone found out how long I've known about Oswald being alive… after an extracted apology, I'm sure he'd have me killed for the betrayal."

The room fell into an uncomfortable heavy silence; so strong it felt like a crushing weight on her chest and she struggled to breathe.

"You know she's right." Jim spoke up, daring to break the silence in hopes of getting both himself and Bird out of there as quickly as possible.

Oswald nodded frantically to the detectives words, and Maroni side-eyed him for a moment before he pointed out, "You realize if she says a word about any of this, all three of you's will die?"

"She won't speak a word!" Oswald stammered out the promise and Jim gave a confident nod in response.

 **~()~**

Jim stood outside of the sandwich shop, watching as Bird argued with Maroni's men until they returned a switchblade knife to her –along with her purse.

He could only guess that had to be knife she'd stabbed one of Maroni's goons with when they were trying to persuade her to come with him.

After her items were returned to her, Bird walked over to meet up with him as the car that dropped them both off then drove away. During the ride away from the restaurant, she'd offered him the choice of staying with Maroni's men for the longer drive back to the station or that she'd drive him back –it was an easy choice.

When she turned back to the restaurant, she saw no trace of Harvey Dent or his car anywhere, she felt her heart drop. They'd taken everything from her when she got into the car on her way to see Maroni, including her phone and she hadn't even had a chance to text him –let alone call and apologize profusely for the disappearing act she'd pulled.

"You alright?" Jim asked her, when she walked up to him.

Ignoring his question she asked one of her own, "You hungry?"

His eyebrows raised when he pointed out that he had already disappeared in the middle of this shift from the station and needed to be getting back.

"You might as well eat something, I mean you're late anyways." Bird pointed out, as she reached for the door and held it open, "Come on, I'm buying."

She had a point; he'd already been gone for over an hour and in truth he wasn't sure he was mentally ready to jump back into his work day –or have the answers he was sure his partner would want to know about where he'd disappeared to.

They sat down at a table not far away from the one she'd been sitting at earlier with Harvey, before she'd gone out the back and left him in the middle of their lunch date –with the bill for their already ordered food no less.

Their table was silent as they both looked over the menu, though she already knew what she was ordering; the same thing she'd ordered earlier.

After giving their order to the waiter and their drinks were brought to them, Jim finally asked, "Everything you said back there, was it true?"

"I do live in a one bedroom apartment that's on the small side and I've had the same car since I was sixteen, but the rest of it not so much." She shrugged, taking a drink from her glass, "I thought my parents weren't going to leave me anything when they died, but my dad surprised me."

"Then how did you know Maroni would buy it?" Jim asked her.

"It's all part of the game." Bird smirked, "A game you played into by going to bat for me –thanks for that by the way."

"What game?" He pushed, as always feeling about ten steps behind everything that happened in Gotham.

"Knowing which part to play." Bird answered, "Maroni doesn't take women seriously; he looks down on them. So I played the part; this poor orphaned girl who's left to her own devices to navigate these harsh Gotham streets, just working and trying to make ends meet."

A glimmer of pride was in her eyes as she leaned forward slightly and said, "Falcone on the other hand –appreciates a strong woman. So with him, boldness is the key. I can speak up when the men who work for him wouldn't dare to."

"Yeah?" Jim asked, his head leaned slightly to the side in wonder, "And which part are you playing now?"

"The ' _thank you for saving mine and my best friend's life'_ part." She said, pausing for a moment before saying, "I'm not putting on a mask of any kind. I'm just me."

She watched him as his eyes slightly narrowed at her, she guessed he was probably trying to see if what she said was the truth. For the most part she was confident it was, though wearing so many figurative masks over the years, she wasn't so sure she was ever truly herself anymore, or even capable of being so.

Before he could ask her another question about herself, she said, "I saw the news earlier about that new drug that's been killing people, what'd they'd call it? Viper?"

"Yeah." Jim nodded, "Forensics even said they've never seen anything like it."

"Forensics… that's Nygma, right?" Bird questioned, remembering the brush in she'd had not long ago at the station with Edward Nygma.

"Yeah…" Jim nodded; eyebrows raised in question.

"I thought so, I bumped into him the day I came to talk to you." She remembered, "He's hilarious."

"He's… definitely something." Jim answered, but Bird didn't seem to hear him.  
"Any leads on who's supplying the Viper?" She casually asked, sliding her glass to the side as the waiter returned with their food.

At first he'd started to tell her that it was an ongoing investigation and he couldn't say much; but so far their biggest lead was that it might be a former employee from a company known as WellZyn –which just so happened to be a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises.

Looking up from the sandwhich that had been sat in front of him, Jim wondered if Bird might have more knowledge on the matter than he did. Not only was she a Wayne, but she was also a criminal and if there was corruption in her family's company, he considered she might be privy to some degree.

"You know much about WellZyn?"

"I know they have the biggest and most state of the art lab in Gotham and that Wayne Enterprises is their parent company." She answered, her eyes growing wide as she questioned, "You think Viper might have come from them?"

"We have reason to believe that a former employee of WellZyn might be the one distributing Viper." Keeping his eyes on her and gauging her reaction he commented, "Probably not though, right? I mean, they made personal hygiene products there –shampoos and soaps."

"At WellZyn?" Bird questioned.

Jim nodded and she laughed as she asked, "Who told you that?"

"Their lawyers." He stated, as he took a bite of his food.

"Wow…" Bird breathed with another laugh, "Why would they need some state of the art lab for creating soaps? Plus, where would the money be in that? Pharmaceuticals is where the money is; sounds like they're just trying to cover their tracks."

"You know this, for a fact? That WellZyn has been producing pharmaceuticals?"

"Not for a fact; but it wouldn't surprise me if Wayne Enterprises was funding something like that. Bruce has been going over company paperwork and files night and day; lately I've been helping and we found a lot of things that just don't really add up. Kind of left us scratching our heads." Looking down to her plate, she picked a piece of lettuce off her sandwich as she admitted, "I told him that even if there was corruption within the company, our parents couldn't have known about it. But the truth is –I really have no idea."

With a surprised look on his face he asked, "Meaning you think there's a chance they might have known?"

"Meaning that I don't think most people are as transparent as they originally seem –they aren't just one dimensional." Bird stated.

His eyebrows raised as he lifted his head to look at her, thinking how much of what she'd just said actually fit with her. It seemed like every time he crossed paths with her, she seemed to contradict every conclusion he'd come to her about her.

Not looking up from her plate she added, "It's just strange, thinking my whole life that my parents were pretty much as saintly as humans can be and then finding out after their gone that maybe their lives weren't as squeaky clean as I thought." Pulling in a breath she admitted, "It makes sick honestly."

Finally looking up at him and seeing the look on his face she questioned, "What is that look for?"

"What look?"

"That look!" Bird exclaimed pointing a finger in his direction as she asked, "Is that your _'you're a criminal so you have no say in it'_ look?"

"No." He laughed, shaking his head. With a shrug he conceded she wasn't too far away from his thoughts, "You still have no idea if your parents knew of any corruption… and maybe you're not exactly in a position to judge them –even if they did."

"Fair enough." She agreed, "I tend to hold certain people to higher standards than myself."

"I gathered that." Jim said, thinking back to the day she'd showed up in his car and nearly caused him to wreck. She was clearly upset over thinking he'd killed Oswald, but there was more to it than that. Bird was angry that he'd let Gotham change him so fast, and he couldn't understand why she'd be upset at that when she chose to live outside of the law.

Pushing her plate to the side she pulled in a deep breath, staring at him before letting out a burdened exhale and saying, "I know I've given you no reason to trust me and I'm sure knowing the things about me that you do, I'm probably one of the last people in Gotham who's words hold any weight with you. But even so… you need to listen to what I'm about to tell you."

The smile faded from his lips and he eyed her doubtfully as he stated, "I'm listening."

"It's only a matter of time before word gets back to Fish that Oswald is alive and when that happens, she's not going to rest until she's served both of your heads on a silver platter. It's no secret that Falcone runs Gotham meaning he has the best of the best working directly under him and they will come for you, Jim. You need to take some time off work, take your girlfriend and get out of Gotham for a while." Bird explained; all the while thinking how much simpler it would be if she could just tell him he was actually a bigger pawn than he'd originally thought and that Oswald was working for Falcone.

She knew Falcone wouldn't order Jim to be killed, but she also knew he'd have to bring him in –possibly even have him roughed up some, so that people wouldn't get suspicious.

"I'm not going to run." He argued. Not that the thought hadn't crossed his mind, but he'd never been one to run from a battle and he looked at this situation as one of his doing. He'd made his own bed so to speak and if he had to lie in it –then he'd take what he had coming.

Besides, he thought, Maroni would probably use all of his own resources to keep his new secret weapon hidden and there was a chance the truth might not come out at all, let alone any time soon.

"You're either incredibly brave or stupid." Bird's voice fell a little flat as she spoke, "Or maybe a little of both with a death wish."

"Maybe so." His tone was dry as he spoke, again feeling like she knew so much more about what was going on then he did.

"I'll do what I can from behind the scenes to help you, but it's not exactly the criminal way to risk life and well-being for someone else, so don't expect me-"

"You? Help me?" He questioned her, eyes narrowing slightly as he continued, "Why would you help me? I seem to recall you telling me you didn't value my life much."

"I don't know. Maybe I feel indebted to you because you spared the life of someone very important to me, or maybe it's because my brother really looks up to you, or because I think despite being a cop you're a decent person." Bird shrugged as she spoke.

"I tried not to like you or care about what happens to you."

Her admission hung in the air for several moments before he scoffed, "Gee, thanks."

"It's nothing personal. I just prefer to keep the list of people I care about a very short one. I mean come on, it's a lot safer for me if I severely limit the number of people I'm willing to risk life and limb to save."

"Don't you remember the conversation we had about how everyone has to matter or no one does?" He pushed, trying to break past the indifference in her tone and icy exterior. He had a feeling she cared about other people a hell of a lot more than she let on.

"Come on, Jim." She said with a smirk, "We can't all be made from the stuff of greatness. Cops and robbers… cowboys and Indians –to have hero's you have to have villains, after all."

"I'm not a hero." Jim argued, eyeing her before saying, "And truthfully, I don't think you're as bad as you pretend to be."

"Don't get your hopes up." She countered, with a smile that left him wondering what all she was hiding behind her stone expression.

Standing up, she picked their bill up from the table and started to walk away to pay for their lunch like she'd promised before driving him to the police precinct. Pausing a few steps away from the table she turned and looked back to him, with thoughts of her little brother on her mind as she gave him the most sincere smile he'd ever seen from her when she said, "And for the record, I do know one person who thinks of you as a hero."

 **~()~**

Bird reached her apartment with a heaviness in her chest, the last thing she wanted to do was go inside and face Oswald. In fact, he was one of the last people on earth she actually wanted to spend time with – a stark contrast to her usual feelings. He was normally her favorite person to be around.

After dropping Jim off at work she'd picked Liza up and spent a few hours with her at a high-end hair salon to put the last few touches on her transformation into someone resembling Falcone's mother –according to the instructions Fish sent with her at least. After that, she'd spent some time working at the club, until finally it just got too be much to be around such a large group of people pretending that everything was fine when that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Locating the correct key on the ring, she unlocked her door and pushed it open with a heavy sigh, both relieved and immediately angered at seeing her friend sitting on her couch. A part of her had feared things might have soured with Maroni after she and Jim had left, but seeing her friend only reminded her of how he'd almost gotten her killed earlier that day.

"Hello Bird." Oswald greeted to gauge how angry she still was at him.

With just a glance from her, he knew she was probably seeing a world cloaked in red rage and if he had to be honest he couldn't blame her much.

Ignoring him, she crossed the living room and went into her bedroom waiting until he started to follow her before she slammed the door in his face.

"I know you're upset with me, but really this is a good thing. I personally feel the spontaneity of Maroni finding out the truth today worked in our favor –and now that parts over and we're onto the next step." His voice cracked as he yelled it through her door, hoping she might believe him or at the very least give him a chance to explain why things had played out the way they did.

Moments later she emerged from her room in different clothes than she'd went in with, but they weren't any of her pajamas.

He started to ask if she was going somewhere, but before he got the chance she asked, "Finding out the truth? Love how you say that like he found out on his own and like you didn't tell him who you are."

"Poor choice of words." He agreed, pulling a breath in between his teeth, "Even so, we're now another step closing to ruling this city. There is a silver lining."

"A silver lining?" She repeated back with raised brows; the same way she always did when they got into fights –repeating what he said back to him to drive the point home that in her eyes, for the moment at least, he couldn't say or do anything right. He bit down on his tongue to keep from lashing out and snapping at her for it; he considered it to be one of her most annoying behaviors.

"Sure, every situation has a bright side, right? I guess in this case the silver lining is that I'm still breathing after you threw me to the wolves to save yourself!" She hissed at him.

"That isn't what happened." He defended, his eyes dropping to the wood floor of the living room as he added, "I apologize if I made you feel that way."

With an exasperated sigh, her arms dropped limp at her sides and her eyes met the ceiling at the less than heartfelt gesture from him. It was clear he wasn't sorry about what he'd done and why he kept up the polite act with her when they fought and went so far as to offer an empty apology was beyond her comprehension. It was times like this when everything about him annoyed her to the core.

"Jim Gordon, I get. I mean after all he's the one who defied his orders from Falcone and spared you, so I understand you giving up his name… but there is no logical reason you needed to mention my name and get me involved with Maroni!"

His eyes traveled up from dark spot on the wood flooring he'd been staring at, their eyes met and he slowly tilted his head to the side like he was waiting for her to realize something.

When she only continued to cut him apart with all the invisible daggers her unforgiving eyes were shooting at him, he sighed, "When someone hears the name Wayne, they listen."

"You almost got me killed!" Her outburst caught him off guard and the shrill tone of her voice made him jump.

"We lived!" He yelled back, reminding her that no matter how dark the day had gotten at times it had ultimately been a win.

"Right, we're alive… for now. But I just feel like this thing isn't over with Maroni, he let me go today but I'm going to constantly be looking over my shoulder now. But the fact we lived isn't even the point!"

"On the contrary, I think it could be argued that it's the most important point." He chimed in, clearly trying to deflect the blame and anger.

"My god." She breathed, almost sounding distressed as she rubbed her forehead.

Taking a few steps closer in response to the troubled tone in her voice he misunderstood what she was so bothered by, in an attempt to make her feel better he assured her, "I will keep my eyes and ears open around Don Maroni and his people –I'll make sure there aren't any plans to go after you."

Rolling her eyes she sighed, "No, you don't get it."

"Get what?" He asked, walking even closer to her.

"How bad you screwed up!" She yelled, stopping his advancement towards her. Pulling in a breath and trying to calm herself down enough to stop shouting she tried to explain, "We lie and cheat and use other people –but we don't do that to one another. Ambition can be a dangerous thing when it's strong enough it blinds you to what's important."

"You are important." He spoke up, clearing his throat. "I don't lie to you and I would never use you, that's not what happened today. It was life and death; my life! I didn't even know if Maroni was listening to me. All I knew was that it felt like my head had split open with an axe and all I was saying anything I could to just get him to listen." Pausing he held his arms out to the sides as he asked, "What was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know…" She shrugged as she answered, "It's just… people like us, people who live the lives that we do are in this state of a perpetual life and death situation. People like us don't trust anyone else because we ourselves can't be trusted –but it was always different with us."

"What are you saying?" Oswald asked. As much of a relief at is was she was no longer yelling, her words were now making it feel like the floor was being dropped from under his feet.

The room fell into an uncomfortable silence and when she made no further attempt to talk he asked, "Are you saying you no longer trust me?"

"What I'm saying is that I need some time to sort things out in my own head."

Her words provided little comfort to him, but he was feeling like he no longer had a leg to stand on in the argument. Nodding he said, "I'll just take my things and-"

"No." Bird cut him off, "Staying here is still probably your safest bet."

Opening up the coat closet behind her front door, she pushed the hangers of his clothes to the side and pulled out of her coat, she added, "After all, your life is the most important, right?"

The snarky remark earned a disappointed look from him. That was until he realized she was putting her coat on and he asked, "Where are you going?"

"Out." She vaguely answered, as she grabbed her purse off the chair and shrugged, "I said you could stay here, I didn't say I was staying."

Taking a few hobbling steps forward on less than stable feeling legs, he stammered out, "Are you g-going to s-stay at Wayne Manor?"

"I haven't figured that out yet." She admitted, as she walked out of her apartment and in one final attempt to let him know how mad she was –she slammed the door shut behind her so hard, she could only hope everything was still on her walls where it should be.

* * *

 **A/N - I actually really like the scenes between Bird and Jim, is anyone else with me there? I don't think I really saw that coming, but they've got an interesting dynamic. Anyways, thanks so much for reading! I hope you liked the chapter and I'm really hoping you'll leave a review to let me know you're still with me here.  
**

 **And to Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, and Love. Fiction. 2016 -thank you guys so much for reviewing chapter 12. ^_.^**


	14. The Two Birds

**XIV**

 _"Your perspective on life comes from the cage you were held captive in." ― Shannon L. Alder_

* * *

Pulling in a breath between her teeth, Bird reached up her hand and closed it into a fist before knocking on one of the large, heavy wooden double doors in front of her. Doors that felt dark and imposing and made her feel too small as she stood facing them.

The time that passed from her knock until the door opened made her feel painfully uncomfortable in her skin and aware of how this was probably all a waste of time.

"Hey Harvey." She greeted with a nervous smile as the lawyer opened his door, pausing for a moment to look at her, before crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the frame with a look on his face that could have been described as anything but friendly.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded to know, his tone much gruffer than he'd ever used with her before.

Doing her best to ignore the unwanted feeling his demeanor was imposing on her, she struggled to keep the smile on her face as she brought attention to the contents in her arms.

"I brought pizza and I rented a couple movies." Bird pointed out, before nodding to the glass bottle poking out of her purse when she added, "And wine. I know most people pair pizza with beer, but I read this article in a magazine once about the best wines to pair with pizza and I'm not sure why but the information kind of just stuck and I thought, why not?"

"I'm not hungry." He stated, taking a step back inside like he was about to slam the door in her face, but she moved forward and stood in the way.

"Look, I know you're mad at me and probably worried from earlier, but-"

"Mad? No, mad was when you disappeared without a trace about ten hours ago. Worried was when I could have sworn I heard a gunshot outside of the restaurant and went looking for you to no avail. You just vanished; without your car at that."

"I texted you-" She defended, but he didn't give her a chance.

"Yes. Yes you did, about two hours after that. When I was back at work trying to focus on my case instead of thinking about and having all these scenarios playing in my head of what might have happened to you."

She made no attempt of trying to conceal the emotion in her eyes as she stared back at him.

Pulling his eyes away from hers, he angrily added, "But thanks for dropping by, so I could see you're in one piece."

She saw the muscles in his arm move under his skin as he held tightly onto the open door and for a brief second she thought he was actually going shut it while she was standing in the way. Deciding to not give him the chance to do so, she breezed past him into his apartment.

"What are you doing?" He exclaimed, clearly thrown off by her actions.

"I'm sorry." She stated, as she sat the pizza box and her purse down on a small table just inside of the door.

"How did you even know where I lived?" He pushed, still standing by the open door.

Ignoring the question she said in an almost feeble sounding voice, "I'll leave if you want me to."

He didn't tell her to go but also didn't make any attempt to make her feel welcome; he even kept the door open.

"I don't really want to leave, but I can understand why you'd want me to." She continued. The honesty in her voice caught his attention more than he'd currently care to admit.

From the first time they'd met, she'd always appeared calm and put together; most times seemed rather indifferent to everything –even him. There had been times he'd internally questioned if she was truly interested in him the way he was with her.

She was constantly on his mind, haunting him when they were apart and it was a feeling that didn't even go away when they were together. Yet she didn't seem to feel the same, or so he thought, with the way she was always vanishing on him.

"I'm not good at this." She admitted with an unstable sounding laugh as she crossed her arms over her chest and avoided his eyes.

"At what?" He asked when she didn't say anything else.

She cleared her throat, but it didn't seem to help to steady her voice much, "Handling emotions, let alone trying to explain them, I guess." Her voice broke with another unsteady laugh, before she shook her head at herself feeling like she was the single, most awkward person on the face of the earth.

"I just…" She breathed, motioning between them, "I'm not always the easiest person to be around, I know that and in truth I'm not the best at relating to other people. I keep most everyone at arms length and for arguments sake, they're probably better off there for one reason or another. Maybe it was a mistake coming here tonight, I don't know."

Closing her eyes she pulled in a breath and in a rare occurrence for her, she took the messy route and chose to be honest. "All I know is that the entire drive here my head was spinning and by the time I made it to the elevator in your building I felt like I had a fist trying to punch it's way out of my chest and I'm not used to feeling like that and I'm not entirely sure what it does or doesn't mean. But... Harvey you cause me to feel, and feel things I'm not sure I've felt before."

Slapping her hand over her eyes, she sighed at herself and suddenly regretted ever taking a step into his apartment and allowing herself to be in this situation. After spending so long conditioning herself to not feel much of anything and to never show weakness, she felt entirely out of her element standing there in front of him with her feelings on display; she felt vulnerable and she was having trouble existing in her own skin from it.

Slowly, she rubbed her eyes and let her hand fall from her face and the silence of the room carried with it a new found sense of fear for her; she was afraid to look up at him. What if she looked at him only to see everything she'd been feeling wasn't reciprocated? Staring down at the floor, a new feeling set in –one that was nothing short of disgust with herself for showing up and babbling like some lovesick fool.

"Oh my god." She sighed, finally looking up at him with a new emotionless glaze over her eyes as she apologized, "I'm so sorry. I had no right to come here muttering like an idiot, it's late and I'm sure you have to work in the morning."

His eyebrows furrowed at seeing such a sudden and sharp flip in her behavior, even her voice sounded different now.

Going to the small table, she pulled the bottle of wine from her purse and sat it next to the pizza box, "Consider the pizza and wine as my apology for ditching you with our lunch check earlier today."

Walking slowly towards the door, hoping to quickly slip past him she added, "There's this thing for Wayne Enterprises tomorrow, a charity luncheon event. I was hoping you'd be my plus-one, so just think about it."

Stopping her as she tried to walk past him, he asked, "I guess it depends on which version of you I'd be going with. The one who showed up here a few minutes ago wanting to share the pizza and wine with me, or the one who's now leaving it here as payment for our sham lunch date from earlier?"

"This one." She stated, feeling self-conscious as she added, "I don't normally come undone like that, I don't know what got into me. I'm not even sure what I was trying to tell you; just forget it ever happened."

"Maybe I don't want to forget it." Harvey admitted to her.

"I do." She whispered, pulling her purse straps onto her shoulder as she folded her arms around her midsection, still in a state of disbelief at herself.

"Why?" He questioned, his voice was now almost as soft as hers when he spoke.

Finally looking at him, she tilted her head to the side with an unamused look on her face, like he'd just asked the single stupidest question in the English language.

"That back there –the nervous, disorderly rambling was-"

"A mess." Bird cut him off.

Cracking a smile he agreed, "It was a mess, but it was real and I'm pretty sure all of what you said was possibly the most open and honest you've ever been with me and I liked it."

Her eyes fell to the floor for a moment and he watched her, smiling as he admitted, "I like you… a lot."

When she looked back up to him he added, "God knows I'd have to; you've ran off from every single encounter we've had and I just keep coming back for more."

A warm feeling rushed over her and she couldn't help but smile at his words.

"I get what you were saying." He finally admitted, a serious expression back on his face as he spoke. "Sometimes it's easier to push someone away than to cope with the emotions they stir up."

"But I've never been one to just take the easy route." He said with a small smile at her, "I want you –the real you. I'd rather have you show up here in the middle of the night with cheap fast food, rambling about how you feel, than to meet you for dinner with you holding everything in and acting indifferent." He explained.

Smiling she nodding to the table as she argued, "That's actually a pretty expensive bottle of wine…"

He let out a chuckle at her words, but continued talking as he said, "Because this whole time I was really starting to think I was only one getting invested in…well, invested in us."

She beamed a smile and there was a restless feeling of wispy wings in her stomach as she softly asked, "We're an ' _us_ ' now?"

"I haven't been able to get you out of my head." Harvey said, "You're always there, popping up at random times when I should be focusing on something else, but I can't because most of the time all I can think about is you."

They stared at each other in silence for a while, before he smiled and pulled his eyes away, nodding to the things she'd set on the table. Closing the door, he walking past her picking up the box and bottle of wine, he asked, "So, what movie are we watching?"

With a smile, she followed him to the kitchen as she pulled the cases out of her purse she said, "Well, I got two movies because I wasn't sure which one you'd want to see. We've got scary and funny."

Setting the box down on the kitchen counter, he walked over to the cabinet and retrieved two wine glasses, which he set down before handing her the corkscrew and saying, "We'll watch the scary one first and the comedy after –wouldn't want you to have nightmares."

She laughed, as she opened the wine bottle and started to pour it into their glasses. Thankful he'd not only forgiven her so soon, but that being around him was comfortable. Despite his tendency to ignite her stomach in a fit of flutters; being around him was a calm feeling she wasn't familiar with.

It was funny to her, he talked about not wanting to take an easy route, yet being around him was unusually easy for her.

Taking a drink from her glass, she watched as he opened a cabinet and reached up to the top shelf to get down some plates for them to eat off of. She smiled with the glass still pressed against her lips as she watched him in his dark blue and black plaid design lounge pants and light gray t-shirt. As much as she loved constantly seeing him in his tailored suits he wore for work and their dates, she didn't think he'd ever looked more handsome than he did now, or maybe it was just that she felt closer to him than ever before.

Her smile didn't go unnoticed, when he walked back over to the counter with their plates.

"What?" He questioned, fighting a smile of his own with the way she was watching him.

"Nothing." She said, her voice slightly muffled against the glass as she took another drink and sat the glass down to top hers off.

Leaning against the counter, her eyes stayed on him as she softly said, "Thank you."

"For what?" He asked, turning to face her after he opened the pizza box.

"For being understanding… for just being so much more than I deserve." The end of her sentence was barely audible as she stared at him; her eyes moved over his face and she couldn't help but notice that his eyes were also heavy on her.

Moving forward she raised up and pressed her lips against his, her hands laid flat against his chest when she felt his arms move around her, pulling her body against his. Harvey could taste the sweet red wine on her lips and his heart sped up with the way she felt in his arms; it was everything they'd both thought kissing the other would be.

Her hands moved up his chest to his shoulders and back of his neck as she pulled his face closer to hers. The feeling of his hands sliding down her sides earned a soft moan from her, and she smiled against his mouth when his fingertips dug into her sides at the sound.

They were both a little breathless by the time the kiss was finally broken, and his forehead rested against hers. And for the moment it felt like everything else had ceased to exist stood, and silently they both wished time itself had stood still and locked them together in that moment for eternity. Kept them trapped there with on another, safe and sound from the rest of the world that always seemed to get in the way.

 **~(The next day)~**

"I'm sorry." Bird apologized as she darted into the main room of Fish's club and was immediately met with her boss's anger laced gaze as she sat at a table with Liza, who was now unrecognizable from the girl who'd auditioned there weeks ago.

"Where were you?" Fish demanded to know, her talon like nails drumming on the table as she spoke.

"I fell asleep at…" Her voice trailed off as she wondered what she'd even call Harvey Dent now, was it too much or too early to call him her boyfriend? "I fell asleep at someone else's house and he apparently didn't feel the need to wake me when he left for work." Bird answered honestly.

"No matter." Fish cut her off, waving a hand through the air, "You're already running far enough behind and the old man won't be feeding the birds for much longer.

Nodding to Liza, Bird said, "Right, come on then."

Liza scrambled to her feet, picking her white clutch purse up from the table and starting for the door.

"Bird will meet you at her car." Fish called after her, as she stood up to face her young employee.

Liza paused at the doorway for a minute before she left them alone, wondering how much trouble Bird had landed herself in.

"This man you spoke of…" Fish said, as she walked up to Bird, "A boyfriend?" She questioned.

"I'm not sure." Bird admitted, her jaw tensed as she added, "I guess so… he referred to us –as an _us_."

"Normally I'd be happy for you, but right now we're on the brink of something that we're only going to get one shot at and you're on my A-team. I can't have you being distracted." Fish explained, as she trailed her hand down Bird's cheek. "This man isn't going to become a distraction is he?"

"No." Bird answered confidently, "It was an honest mistake and it won't happen again."

"Good, I need to know you're willing to give a hundred percent here, because one wrong step and it's all of our heads on the chopping block." Fish reminded her, though it sounded more like a threat directed straight at Bird.

When the younger woman stayed quiet, she patted her cheek a littler harder than could be mistaken for just a love tap before she said, "Off you go, make sure our weapon gets there in one piece."

"I will." Bird assured her.

Once she was out and in the car, Liza eyed her for a few minutes before she thought back to the first day Bird had taken her out shopping to start getting her ready for Falcone, and they'd ran into Harvey Dent while getting lunch and she asked, "Am I right to assume the reason you're late is because of Harvey?"

Glancing over to the newly dyed blonde in her passenger seat, Bird laughed, "Yeah, but it's not what you're thinking. We fell asleep on the couch watching some terrible B-rated horror movie and at some point this morning he woke up and went to work and left me there."

"That's sweet though." Liza commented, happy for the moment to have someone to talk to and a subject that could take her mind off what was about to happen.

"It just had to be on the day I'm expected at work before noon though." Bird sighed, glancing back over to Liza as she added, "All he knows about my job is that I work a night club, so I guess he just figured I didn't need to be up as early as he did."

"Today there's this charity luncheon for my family's company. It's going to be terrible, it's also so ridiculously ritzy to look good for the reporters that will be there for the papers and I'm not looking forward to spending so much time with the people my dad worked with before he died, but Harvey is coming with me so I'm thinking it won't be as bad as the ones I attended in the past."

With a thoughtful look on her face, Liza nodded, "Maybe one day, when this Falcone stuff is behind us and I turn into this woman of money, power and respect like Fish promises, maybe I'll get invites to chichi luncheons." Her face fell some as she breathed, "If I survive my time as a secret weapon that is."

"Getting nervous?" Bird guessed.

"Trying not to be." Liza admitted,her tone rather strong compared to her trembling hands that lay in her lap.

"You're going to do fine." Bird tried to assure her, "You look, talk and walk the part now. Fish coached you on everything you need to know and how to act. She knows Carmine Falcone better than anyone else. Just remember everything she taught you."

Cracking a smile, Liza said, "And you turned me into a clean cut and respectable looking woman."

"You still look hot." Bird laughed, "Just now you look classy-hot and not trashy-hot."

They both laughed and for the moment both of their spirits were lifted until, bird pulled her car into a parking lot near a line of trees just outside of the oldest section of Gotham Park and they knew they were just minutes away from parting ways.

Bird and Liza got out of the car and stood just out of view from where Falcone was sitting on the old, stone steps like usual for that time of day as he tossed bread crumbs from a brown paper bag to the birds collecting on pavement by the fountain.

"Strange."

Bird heard Liza mumble under her breath.

"What?" She questioned.

"I've just heard all these horror stories, you know? And then to see him in person like that… just feeding the pigeons. He looks like he could be anyone's father or grandfather. He almost looks… harmless." Liza explained, as she fidgeted with the buttons on her thin white jacket.

"Like I said, he's all charm and old world manners." Bird reminded her of an earlier conversation between them, "I don't know... personally, I've never had any problems with him, but I also know what he's capable of and the price someone pays for trying to screw him over."

"And here we are." Liza stated.

Nodding, Bird agreed, "And here we are."

"Okay…" Bird sighed, thinking it was harder to send Liza off than she'd expected it to be, "Just remember everything you've been taught and you've got a number to call in case of emergency. We'll get in touch with you if Fish needs to talk or needs anything else from you. But there is where I leave you."

Pulling in a deep breath, Liza tried to calm her nerves. "It sucks, you know, having to cut contact like this. It was nice, having you as a friend while it lasted."

"It was." Bird agreed. As she took a few steps back making sure she was hidden behind the tree line as Liza took one last look at her before she started walking towards the fountain.

With her earbuds now in place and the cassette tape playing the song Fish had taught her to memorize, Liza slowly walked towards Falcone like she'd been instructed. To not look at him, just pretend she was taking a nice stroll through the park.

Stealthily, Bird stayed hidden amongst the trees as she moved closer to make sure the first part of the plan went off without a hitch.

It wasn't long until Falcone became aware of Liza's presence, as she slowly ventured closer –humming the song just loud enough for the wind to carry her voice to his ears.

Standing up, Falcone removed his hat as he approached her.

Bird watched from the trees, frowning when she couldn't understand what they were saying from where she was standing.

Carefully, she inched forward, taking shelter behind the wide base of an old tree with moss altered bark.

"I couldn't help but overhear that aria you were humming."

"Oh, yes, it's my favorite." Liza smiled as she replied.

"Mine, too!" Falcone exclaimed.

"Ah, well, there you go…" Liza awkwardly replied, when she couldn't think of anything better to say.

Bird rubbed her forehead and sighed to herself at how rude the remark sounded, but instead of taking offense she stared in shock as the crime boss apologized, "I'm sorry. I-I just… I didn't mean to bother you. It's just that my mother sang that to me when I was young; she sang it to me my whole life and I hadn't heard it in a while. Then I saw you and I had to smile because you look… well, anyhow, sorry. I'm rambling on."

If Bird wasn't aware of the placing of her own jaw, she'd have sworn it was laying on the ground. Carmine Falcone, the most notorious crime boss in all of Gotham was nearly speechless in Liza's presence.

It was clear he was instantly taken with the young woman, and Bird could have sworn she saw a twinkle in his eye from where she was standing. Fish's plan was going perfectly, better than anyone could have imagined.

"No, it's okay." Liza assured him, before she looked down to the cord of her ear buds in her hand and offered, "Would you like to listen?"

"Well, yes." He answered, clearly astonished by the offer. After all he was aware of his age and reputation and here was this young, beautiful woman who reminded him so much of his mother being kind to him after he'd interrupted her walk through the park.

Nodding to the stairs, Liza offered, "Let's sit down?"

"Sure, t-thank you." He stammered out as he followed her back to where he'd been sitting.

Bird lingered a little while longer, watching them as they each sat with one earbud in listening to the song together in silence until Liza started softly humming along with it.

Seeing Don Falcone like that, reminded Bird that he was human. His name carried so much with it that even after meeting him several times, when she heard his name she tended to think of a well-oiled machine and not a man who could be so easily rendered speechless.

Bird had to admit it was endearing to see the crime leader in such a different light, despite her conspiring with Oswald to overthrow him as the ruler of Gotham, there had always been something she'd liked about Don Falcone. Watching the way he was watching Liza was almost enough to make Bird feel guilty for knowing Fish was using her knowledge of Falcone's mother to bring him down.

With one last glance at the pair, Bird disappeared back through the trees, waiting until she was safely in her car before she called Fish and let her know how their initial meeting had gone; it was perfect.

* * *

 **A/N- So Harvey and Bird made some big progress in this chapter. ^_^ Anyone else happy about that?  
**

 **Thank you guys so much for reading!**

 **I owe a huge thanks to Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, Love. Fiction. 2016, and MzzLightwood for reviewing! I appreciate it so much.**


	15. Viper

**XV**

 _"You inherit your environment just as much as your genes." ― Johnny Rich_

* * *

"This is it." Bird said as she leaned forward and pointed to one of Gotham's most pricey hotels, before adding, "Wayne Enterprises bought out the main conference room, the ballroom and a private dining room for the day."

Harvey blew out a breath as he pulled up behind a small and fast moving line of cars that looked like they each would cost more than six months of his salary.

The line moved quickly and when they reached the front, the couple got out of the car and left it to the complimentary valet parking.

Looking down Harvey leaned over and quietly said, "They actually rolled out a red carpet for this?"

"Looks that way." She replied with a chuckle as she watched an older couple walk past them towards the door.

"I saw a taco stand a few streets back, we could make a run for it." Bird joked, with playfully raised eyebrows to match her tone.

A small group of people walked past them and Harvey shook his head, "No, we've already been spotted. I think we missed the window of opportunity for escape."

Offering her his arm, he gave her his signature smile as he cordially said, "Miss Wayne."

"Why, thank you Mr. Dent." She replied mimicking his tone and giving him a smile of her own as she linked her arm with his and the couple started for the doors.

Once they were inside, they looked around at the lavish decorations and designer clad crowd.

"I'm afraid to touch anything." Harvey admitted, and Bird felt her cheeks flush in response to the feeling of his breath on her ear as he spoke, "I bet one night in this hotel costs more than I make in a month."

"It's pretty over-the-top, but you're a lawyer." She argued as she nodded towards a small set of stairs leading into the ballroom where they had the main room for the event set up.

"I'm a district attorney. All the real money is made from working for the defense teams." He said, as they started up the small set of stairs to a desk at the entrance of the main event room.

"Name please?" A woman at the desk asked, not looking up from the guest list on the clipboard in front of her.

"Wayne." Bird said, waiting until the woman looked up at her before she continued, "Starling Wayne." With a smirk on her lips as she spoke.

"Oh, right! Of course Miss Wayne, you and your guest can go right on in." She spoke in a fast tone as she motioned with her arms to usher Bird and Harvey into the room.

Within seconds, Bird had swooped a glass of champagne off one of the waiter's trays that was circling the room.

Taking a drink from her glass she looked around at all of the decorations and one of the largest TV screens she'd ever seen off to the side that was playing a slideshow of clips and videos to the sound of a female narrator talking over and over about all of the good Wayne Enterprises continues to achieve.

"I haven't been to anything like this in well over a year." Bird stated, pulling her arm from Harvey's and spun in a slow circle to see who all was at the lunch event.

"And this is a charity luncheon?" He asked, also looking around the room.

"That's what the invitation said." She nodded with a laugh.

"You know, if they put all of the money they spent to fund this luncheon into charity, they could have probably fed every homeless person in Gotham for at least month." Harvey said, his eyes drifting over to the TV as he spoke.

"More than just a month, I'd wager."

Hearing the familiar voice, Bird smiled as she turned around and greeted, "Alfred."

"Lady Wayne." He smiled back, before looking around and stating, "Your brother's around here somewhere. Off to chase down a member of the board, I suppose."

"Probably so." She said with a laugh.

"Oh!" She exclaimed glancing over to where Harvey was beside her as she said, "Alfred, this is Harvey Dent." Motioning between them she continued, "Harvey, this is Alfred Pennyworth."

"Right, yeah, I remember you telling me about him." Harvey smiled to Bird, before shaking Alfred's hand and laughing when he said, "Only the good bits, I hope."

Placing a hand on Harvey's arm, Bird said, "I'll be back, I'm going to see if I can find my brother."

With that she left her date to talk to Alfred and she started her tour around the room; offering polite smiles and waves to the people who acknowledged her. Being in that atmosphere for only a short time was already leaving her feeling drained and served to remind her why she stopped attending such events.

Her parent's never missed one; only now that they were gone it fell on her and her brother to be the Wayne faces at such events and holding shares her father had left her in the company, she knew she had to at least put on a nice dress and mingle at company gatherings.

Looking back around the room, she spotted her brother sitting a table off to the side by himself with a small plate of hors d'oeuvres and a glass of water.

Sliding into the chair across the table from him, she said, "I thought Alfred said you were looking for members of the board."

Glancing at his sister and then back out to the room, he let out a small sigh as he said, "It's more difficult than I expected. I know all their names, seen them plenty of times on paper –but I don't have faces to put with the names."

"I remember some of the people dad worked closely with, are you looking for anyone specific? I might be able to point them out." She offered.

Looking to his older sister, he watched as she took a drink of the faintly colored, bubbly liquid in her glass.

"You know you're not legally old enough to be drinking that." He stated, and she could feel his scrutinizing eye on her.

Smirking at him she took another drink while he watched her before saying, "Would you lighten up? This is Gotham, no one cares that I'm drinking."

"Just because you can get away with doing something doesn't mean you should do it." Bruce argued with her. Politely thanking a waiter as they came to take the now empty plate from in front of him.

"You want my help or not?" She questioned with a tight smile on her lips; for the day wanting to keep peace between them.

"Yes." He said, taking another sip of his water before he stood up. Together they crossed the room and he asked, "Do you see anyone you think dad would have trusted? Someone he worked very closely with?"

"Hmm…" She hummed, as she drank down the last of her champagne and sat it on another waiter's tray when he passed by them.

Bird's eyes landed on someone she recognized, but before she could say anything, she felt an arm slide around her waist and Harvey said, "There you are."

She smiled, wondering if the wispy feeling in her stomach was from the champagne or his touch.

"Harvey, I'd like you to meet my brother, Bruce." Bird smiled as she laid a hand against her date's chest and continued, "This is Harvey Dent."

"It's very nice to meet you." Bruce politely said as he extended a hand to him.

"And you as well." Harvey replied, shaking his hand with a smile as he looked at the thirteen year old, who much like Bird had told him seemed much older than his years.

Bruce's eyes fell to where Harvey's other arm was around his sister's waist, before he looked back to her. He'd never met any of her boyfriends in the past and she'd certainly never invited anyone to a company event –half the time she didn't show up at all.

His eyes went back to where Harvey was standing; he had a good feeling about him, but the older he got the more he became aware his sister didn't always keep the best company.

"What do you do –for work?" Bruce questioned him.

"I'm an assistant district attorney." He answered with a small laugh at the way the younger boy had asked the question; it was clear he was looking out for his sister, despite her being several years older than he was.

"That must be hard work with all the corruption in Gotham, even spreading into City Hall."

"It's definitely challenging, even on the good days." He answered, with a slight look of disbelief on his face. "I believe it's worth it though; putting a stop to some of the corruption."

"Yes, I'd imagine so." Bruce smiled widely as he spoke. He'd heard before that none of the lawyers in Gotham, no matter which side of the courtroom they stood on were honest.  
But he didn't believe it, not now. He might have just met him, but he could already tell Harvey wasn't working for the bad guys of the city.

"Starling tells me you're on a hunt of your own to find unjust in Wayne Enterprises." Harvey brought up.

Bruce looked over to his sister with a shocked expression, not only that she'd been talking about him to Harvey but also because she never let anyone outside of the family use her real name –she always insisted everyone call her Bird.

"Yes, that is if there is anything actually going on within the company." Bruce explained, "My parent's wouldn't have done business that way so it's possible what I've found on paper are just errors that could be easily explained once I sit down with the board."

Now it was Harvey's turned to look shocked at the level of maturity Bruce conducted himself with at such a young age.

"See that woman over there, the one in the blue suit next to the TV?" Bird asked her brother in a low voice, before she explained, "That's Molly Mathis, she worked closely with dad. She's more middle management level though, if I remember correctly."

Immediately recognizing the name from the files he'd been absorbed in, Bruce said, "I'd like to speak with her."

"Okay, I'll tell her she needs to sit down and talk to you then." Bird agreed, taking a step forward, until her brother stopped her when he saw Alfred approaching them.

"Maybe we should let Alfred take care of that part." Bruce suggested, knowing his sister didn't always seem to possess the best people skills.

When she shot him a look he added with a small shrug, "Sometimes you're known to be a little…"

"Intense?" Harvey guessed, holding back a laugh at the look Bird shot him.

"I was going to say intimidating, but yes, intense is fitting as well." Bruce agreed, looking to his sister and laughing at the look on her face as she looked between her brother and her date.

"Fine." She sighed with feigned irritation, before her dimples showed as she smiled and added, "I'll be plan B then. If she doesn't want to talk to you or listen to what you have to say, I'll make it happen."

Once Alfred had gotten Mrs. Mathis to agree to sit down and discuss business aspects with Bruce, they left to speak with her. Harvey looked to Bird as he said, "I see what you mean now; the whole thirteen going on forty thing with your brother."

"Right!" She exclaimed turning to face him with a laugh, "He's like this completely put together, little adult. It gets unnerving at times."

The next several minutes seemed to drag on and on as different people who worked at Wayne Enterprises approached Bird to express their condolences about the loss of her parents and ask how she and her brother were getting along without them. Her cheeks ached from keeping a constant smile and acting as polite as possible to everyone who'd spoken to her.

Looking over she saw her brother sitting alone at the table with Molly Mathis, after a quick scan of the room she located Alfred speaking to one the waiters. "I'm going to check on Bruce." Bird said, looking to Harvey.

Nodding he offered, "I can find us an empty table and we can get to the lunch part of this luncheon?"

Smiling Bird nodded in thanks, telling him she'd come find him in a few minutes then went off to see how her brother's conversation was going.

Plastering a smile back on her face, she walked up and stood behind her brother, resting her hands on the back of his chair and listening as Molly told him it was good to see him out and about after the loss he'd suffered.

Her gaze drifted up to where Bird was standing and she offered a small, empathetic smile as she said, "All of us here at Wayne Enterprises are so sorry for your loss, we can't imagine how terrible this must be for the both of you."

Bruce looked over his shoulder to his sister, before turning back to Molly and asking, "Are there many board members here?"

"Oh, heavens no!" She exclaimed with a chuckle, "We're all middle management. The board doesn't do this sort of thing."

"Why not?" Bruce questioned.

Molly's eyes drifted up to where Bird was still standing behind her brother; despite the friendly expression on her face, Molly shifted in her seat with the way the younger woman was staring her down.

"Well." She breathed, clearing her throat and looking back to the less imposing of the Wayne children, "Well they're busy people Bruce. Your family created a company with billions and billions and dollars. How awesome is that?"

"Awesome." Bird flatly stated back, with raised eyebrows before she questioned, "You're not patronizing my brother are you?"

"No, no. Of course not." Molly quickly asserted, not given time to say much else before Bird continued, "He asked you a legitimate question and frankly it sounded like you were giving a roundabout answer that one would use to hush a child. He's thirteen not six."

Reaching for the glass of water on the table in front of him, Bruce hid a smile at not only his sisters words, but the way in which they'd left Molly appearing utterly stunned and stammering to speak.

"That was not my intention at all." Molly struggled through the sentence before asking with a strained smile, "Starling, maybe you'd like to have a seat with us. I'll just have another chair brought over."

Stopping her before she could flag down a waiter, Bird shushed, "Not necessary thank you, I prefer standing; getting a birds eye view of things."

Bruce glanced back over his shoulder to her for a moment, knowing that she was mainly standing when they were sitting because it added to the level of intimidation she gave off. If there was one thing his sister was good at it; it was making other people uncomfortable.

Turning back towards the table he said, "I'd like to speak with the board. I've found what seems to be some serious irregularities with The Arkham Project."

"Irregularities?" Molly questioned.

"Yes, mainly with how the Falcone and Maroni crime families were allowed to gain such large shares." He nodded.

Shaking her head, "No, I can assure you Bruce that Wayne Enterprises would never countenance doing business with criminals." Shrugging it off she added, "It just wouldn't happen."

"I hope so, but I'd like to speak directly to the board myself." He urged, showing no signs of giving up or taking what she said at face value, "Could you make that happen?"

The smile was back on her lips as she swallowed hard, shifting in her seat as she spoke, "I could certainly try."

"Oh, come on now Miss Mathis." Bird smiled, "I think you could do a little better than _try_."

"I will do everything I can." She argued, glancing at Bird before turning her attention to Bruce and explaining, "They prefer to communicate with minors via the usual, legal mediation… but I can see if-"

Her sentence was cut short as the large TV went to static before the image of a man's face took up the whole screen and the surround sound in the room thudded from his voice.

" _Good even ladies and gentleman. This is a public service announcement on behalf of all living creatures. You've heard of a drug called Viper? That's me."_

A series of gasps and whispers went through the room as the man on TV stopped talking to let what he said sink in and pull a bitter tasting breath in between his teeth.

" _I made it for WellZyn, a subsidiary for Wayne Enterprises."_

"Is this true?" Bruce asked.

"Of course not Bruce." Molly said, "This man is clearly insane."

He looked over his shoulder to see if Bird knew anything about what was being said, but she was looking around the room and not paying attention to him.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw James Gordon and Harvey Bullock speaking to an employee at the desk who pointed them towards a staircase, as the detectives took off running in the direction of the room everyone was in. Looking over she saw Jim disappear into a door leading to stairs and Bullock stopped in the ballroom, looking up towards the ceiling.

" _I had hoped that a demonstration using street people would suffice, but seems bad things only truly happen when they happen to important people… like you!"_

Another round of collective shocked gasps spread through the room like wildfire in a dry forest, and Bird's eyes drifted up towards an air vent where she saw a large amount of green smoke starting to pour through the metal slats.

Grabbing a large cloth napkin off the table, she held it over her brother's mouth and nose as she pulled him from his chair and held him against her as the feeling of panic started to pull all of the air from the room.

"GCPD! Everybody out, hurry!" Bullock yelled, pausing only long enough to make sure the message had gotten through, before he ran for the stairs where his partner had went just moments before. They needed to get to the roof where the air conditioning plant was located for the building.

Seeing Alfred rushing towards them, Bird kept the cloth napkin pressed to Bruce's face as she pushed him towards Alfred and yelled over the dizzying loud noises of the crowd panicking as they tried to find a fast way out of the room and away from danger. "Get him out of here, I've got to find Harvey!" Seeing the exit was being over ran with everyone trying to get out she pointed to the door at the far side of the room and said, "There's stairs behind that door."

Without wasting a second, Bird pushed her way through the large crowd to get further into the room. Most everyone was trying to get out of the main exit, while a few people who clearly didn't function well in times of duress were more or less darting all over the room.

It was then she spotted Harvey trying to help one of the panic stricken guests towards the backed up lines leading out of the room and hopefully, to safety.

"We have to go." She yelled as she raced towards him, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the door to the stairs she'd seen Jim and Bullock use and had directed Alfred to just mere moments before.

Once they were into the stairway, she let go of Harvey and led the way taking the stairs as fast as possible all the way to the first floor, where she found the exit door kicked open, she assumed from Alfred.

Spilling out into the early evening air, she moved to the side, leaning against the side of the building as she fought for a breath.

Harvey stood beside her, leaned forward slightly with his hands on his knees trying to catch his own breath. Looking up he saw a few other people emerging from the door, including the one he'd been trying to convince to move to safety upstairs. Blowing out a sigh of relief, his throat felt uncomfortably dry as he managed to ask, "Your brother?"

"Alfred got him out." She answered in an airy tone as she laid her head back against the bricks, thankful that everyone she cared about had managed to get out of the hotel unscathed.

 **~()~**

"Thank you for coming with me, but you didn't have to." Bird said, looking over to Harvey as they walked through the main entrance of her family's house, "I said you could have just dropped me off at my car."

"And miss out on the chance to see the inside of Wayne Manor?" He joked, hoping to lighten the mood and ease her mind some; though he knew she wouldn't fully calm down until she saw her brother was unharmed.

"Well, this was my father's office." Bird explained, as she led him to the room where her brother had been spending all of his time, "Lately Bruce has been camped out in here around the clock."

The couple walked into the room and Harvey looked around the large room, his eyes stopping on all the boxes spread throughout. Bird had told him about helping her brother look through files for any paper trails of corruption within the company, but he had no idea how big the treasure trove of information they had was.

"Maybe he's in his room-" She started to say, but before she could get her sentence out she heard her little brother say her name.

Turning to face the doorway she breathed a sigh of relief, looking him over before asking, "You alright?"

"Fine." He stated, a small smile appearing on his lips when he added, "Thanks to you."

The siblings smiled at one another for a moment, before he finally moved forward and hugged her; clearly relieved she'd made it out of the hotel as well. Any anger he'd been holding about the press conference she'd spoke at was long gone. He'd spent the entire drive back to the house worrying about whether she'd been able to get out of the hotel.

Caught off guard by the embrace, it took her a few seconds to respond appropriately and hug him back.

They certainly weren't the closest of siblings, even growing up when they both lived at Wayne Manor. Most of which Bird would openly take the blame for, she wasn't ever the easiest person to get along with and especially during her teenage years she distanced herself away from her entire family. While their relationship had sometimes been strained at best, she'd always been protective over her younger brother.

Things were different for them both now since their parents had been killed. She felt a responsibility towards Bruce that she hadn't in the past and as much as she hated to admit it; that fact had made her more conscious about what she was doing in her own life and how it might someday come back on him.

"I'm fine." She assured him, stepping back from the hug.

"I see that." He smiled, glancing over to Harvey he added, "I'm glad to see you both made it out."

Looking over to Bird, Harvey explained, "We tried to call, but none of the calls would go through."

"They wouldn't after a situation like that, would they?" Alfred asked as he walked into the room with a silver tray of assorted teas, milk, sugar, a teapot of hot water with matching glasses on it.

Walking over he sat it down on the coffee table as he explained, "Towers must be jammed from all the coverage of what happened at the luncheon."

Thinking back to what the man who'd launched the attack on the guests said, Bird repeated, "Nothing bad truly happens until it happens to the right people –then everyone gets obsessed with it."

"Can we please refrain from quoting the psychopath who almost killed the lot of us?" Alfred asked, with a sternness in his tone as he shot her an un-amused look.

"He had a point though." Bruce defended. He was sitting on the couch with his nose already buried in another folder. "People don't seem to notice the bad until it happens to a select few."

"I don't know if it's so much that they don't notice –more so a matter of caring." Harvey shrugged as he spoke.

"Either way, let's just be thankful it's over and we're all still here to tell the tale." Alfred loudly spoke, before motioning to the tea and asking, "Tea anyone?"

"We're not staying long…" Birds voice trailed off when her phone started ringing from her jacket pocket, "Guess the cell towers are working again." She stated, flipping her phone open to see if was Oswald calling from the cellphone she'd gotten him weeks prior.

"I'll be right back." She announced, giving Harvey an empathetic smile before briskly walking from the room.

She pushed the button to answer the call during her walk to the kitchen, but didn't say anything until she was sure she was alone and hadn't been followed.

"Hey…" She breathed, putting the phone to her ear.

"I've been trying to call you for an hour." Oswald replied, sounding frazzled with his breath heavy into the phone as he spoke.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she asked, "Why are you whispering?"

Oswald looked around the small staff use only bathroom at the restaurant he was hiding in for the time being until Maroni was sure to send one of his men to find him.

"I'm trying to stay out of sight." He admitted, blowing a breath into the phone that hurt Bird's ear when he added, "I wasn't supposed to leave Maroni's side, but I saw the news and I…" His voice trailed off with another breath that made her sigh as she brought the phone away from her ear in response to the sound.

"I'm okay."

He closed his eyes and nodded with the phone still pressed tightly against his ear when she answered the question he'd yet to find the words to ask.

"Funny isn't it?" He asked, "How such simple words can carry such an immense feeling of relief for a heavy heart?"

"A heart heavy with what?" She questioned, leaning against the wall as she moved the white curtains to the side to look out of the window into the large side yard.

"With regret and woe." He answered, closing his eyes and trying to concentrate on the tone in her voice to determine if she was still seeing red when thoughts of him crossed her mind.

A smile fell on her lips, and she let the curtains fall back over the window.

An eternity seemed to pass as he waited on her response, but his admission was met with nothing but silence.

"Bird?"

"I'm still here."

The call fell silent again before she sighed, "I'm still not fond of what you did, but I understand why you did it."

"Are you saying you're not angry with me anymore?" Oswald questioned and she could hear the hopefulness in his words.

"I'm saying you're not the only one with a heart full of woe." She breathed.

His lips curved up at her admission and how he could hear the smile in her voice.

Hearing footsteps outside of the bathroom he was just about to tell her he had to go, but before he got the chance she said something that he rarely heard from her and it stopped him dead in his tracks.

"I'm sorry, Oswald."

His mind started to race –trying to figure out what she'd done that was bad enough she'd actually be apologizing over.

"I don't know what's going on with me." She admitted, with an exasperated breath, "I've not been myself lately. Everything is just changing so fast from day to day and I'm finding it harder than usual to keep my feelings in check. I'm all over the place. Completely in control one minute and then the next I let my emotions dominate my decisions… and I know better than that."

For years now she'd held a strong control over what she felt and when she'd allow herself to feel it; if she chose to feel anything at all. Now, there were days she felt like someone else was running the show; going from zero to ninety in less than a second and she was struggling to keep up with them.

She'd tried to pinpoint the source of the change several times. Summed it up to be because of losing her parents, to assuming a new sense of family and responsibility for her brother, at times she even thought maybe the feeling of losing Oswald still had her messed up even though he was alive and well.  
For a while she even blamed Harvey Dent for making her feel things she couldn't remember ever feeling before. There were moments when she feared that maybe she was having a psychotic break at the thought of no longer having any control in her world.  
All of those thoughts and reasons were dismissed as soon they appeared to her, because not long after feeling like the earth was crashing and burning around her –it felt like the struggle had already passed and she was back to her old self –inevitably just in time to feel it all spinning out of her grasp again.

"You do know better." Oswald agreed, but couldn't bring himself to chastise her on the matter considering he'd made several important decisions lately, also from an emotion over logic standpoint.

Taking a breath he excused, "But… this is Gotham, where it seldom feels like we awake in the same world of which we went to sleep."

Despite his clearly not being able to see her –she nodded along with what he said thinking she couldn't have worded it better herself. So many mornings she'd woken up to see so much had changed that it hardly felt like the same city more than a few days in a row.

"I should be going." Oswald whispered into the phone when another set of footsteps were heard on the tile floor outside of the bathroom. "Are you coming back to your apartment tonight?"

"I think so, but it probably won't be until later tonight." She answered.

He fought the urge to ask her where she was going to be and who she was going there with. He didn't have the time to open that conversation and he also needed to keep his head in the game. It was just a few hours away that he was being forced to tag along with Maroni, while his crew would rob Falcone's casino.

Of course he'd already ran everything by Falcone and had been assured the underground tunnels would be cleared of guards; he knew a move like this would instill more of Maroni's trust in Oswald and it's not like the amount they'd be able to steal would affect him much.

"Until later then." Oswald quietly said.

"Until later." Bird repeated back, waiting for the click and silence on his end of the line before she pulled her phone away from her ear and flipped it shut.

"And who might that have been?"

Spinning around Bird shot Alfred a look as she asked, "What was it you were saying to Bruce the other day? Oh yeah, I remember… that it was bloody rude of him to be sneaking about the house."

"I was hardly sneaking." He defended, "I was showing your date to the lavatory and then I came to boil more water for tea."

Turning to the sink she filled the tea kettle and handed it to him, avoiding his eyes as he watched her.

"How long were you listening?" She quietly asked him, watching as he set the kettle on top of the stove.

"Long enough I'd be confident to wager who you were speaking too." He admitted, before he turned back to the stove and added, "Though, Lady Wayne, you know I've never been one for eavesdropping."

"Don't judge me." She sighed, tucking her phone back into her pocket as she started to walk past him.

"I would never." Alfred asserted, waiting until she reached the door before adding, "You know your father was one of the most noble men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing –also one of the strongest."

Turning around, her forehead lined as she guessed, "What are you saying? That this apple fell a little too far from the tree?"

"No." He said, glancing over his shoulder at her, "Just remembering how very few things in this world could elicit such an emotional response from him the way family could; namely you. In all my years here around your family –I've only ever seen your father cry once."

Bird's eyebrows knotted as she took a few steps closer and quietly admitted, "I never saw him cry."

"No, you wouldn't have." He replied turning to face her when he added, "I'm talking about the night you loaded as many of your possessions as possible into the back of your car, placed your house keys on his desk and drove away."

A pained expression fell over her features as she stared back at him. She'd expected her mom to be upset enough to shed tears over her moving out of Wayne Manor, but as much as she fought with her father she thought he'd have felt more relief than anything with her absence.

"Your parents thought they'd lost you that night." He added, eyeing her as he spoke.

"I had to leave, Alfred. With as big as this house is I felt like they were constantly breathing down my neck; I was miserable here."

"They were concerned about you and they had every right to be."

"It was suffocating." She exclaimed, shaking her head and feeling guilty talking about them now that they were gone.

A few beats of silence passed before he said, "When that lunatic released that Viper drug into the luncheon; do you remember what happened? Your first concern wasn't for your date, it wasn't even for yourself. No, you sprang right into action to protect your brother above all else."

"Is there a point to what you're saying?" She asked, arms crossed over her chest as she leaned her hip against the counter.

"Despite spending years trying to distance yourself from your family when danger descended earlier today your first instinct was to protect your brother and that is the daughter your parents raised." He explained, unable to tell from her stance and demeanor if she was actually taking any of his words to heart. "Why Lady Wayne, since your parents died… I have seen you turning more and more into the person they raised you to be."

"Maybe it just looks that way because I've been around here more." She answered, her voice almost emotionless as she spoke.

"What is it that you're so afraid of?" He questioned, "Why do you reject any suggestion that you may have actually held onto the principles and values they instilled on both you and Master Bruce?"

"Because it doesn't matter." She argued, her jaw tensed as she spoke, "All of the rights in the world wouldn't make up for the wrongs and no matter how hard I tried to be what they wanted me to be… it was always some unattainable dream –so finally I just stopped trying."

Hearing the tea kettle starting to whistle he asked, "Could you hand me the tea pot, please?"

Walking over she picked it up off the counter and handed it to him right as the kettle's loud whistling echoed through the kitchen and for the few seconds it continued the noise felt deafening.

Removing the kettle from the stove, Alfred began to pour the boiling hot water into the glass pot. Glancing over to where Bird was standing he commented in a quiet voice, "It's such a shame."

"What is?" She questioned confused by the statement; she'd thought their conversation ended when the kettle boiled.

"The shadowed and depraved and highly flawed manner in which you view yourself in." He stated, setting the kettle down in the sink and carrying the now full tea pot of hot water back to the study.

Waiting a few moments, she made her way back to the study where she caught up with Harvey coming from the other direction as they reached the doorway.

"Ready to go?" He asked her.

Looking into the room she saw Bruce and Alfred sitting on the couches opposite of one another as they both looked over the files. She smiled to herself at it when just days ago Alfred was trying to talk him out of spending his time reading over all that information. It seemed that he'd had a change of heart in lieu of the recent developments in what WellZyn had –had their scientists working on.

"Actually, I think I'm gonna stick around here for a while and help them look over the documents. I'll just borrow one of the cars from here to get home." Bird said, with a soft smile as she raised up and pressed a kiss to his lips. Pulling back slightly, her lips still brushed against his as she said, "I'm sorry for the disaster this day turned into."

Her hair felt like silk between his fingers as he pulled her face back to his, smiling against her lips between kisses as he breathed, "Maybe one day we'll have a date that doesn't end with you disappearing or us almost being killed."

"In Gotham?" Her laugh sounded more like a giggled as she pulled back from him and said, "Probably not, but there's always hope."

Smiling Harvey offered, "I'll call you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." She nodded, not able to stop smiling as he leaned in to kiss her one last time before she turned and went into the study, kicking her heels off next to the couch before sitting down next to Alfred with her legs tucked underneath her.

Lingering in the doorway he watched her, almost mesmerized with the way her hair glossily shined in the sunlight pouring in through the large windows.

Walking into the room, he asked, "Need an extra pair of eyes?"

Bird looked up at him with a wide smile as Harvey sat down on the other couch next to Bruce, who looked over at him with raised eyebrows just before passing over the folder he'd been looking at and opening up a new box.

Laying the folder down, Harvey unbuttoned his suit jacket and slid it off, laying it down beside him before picking the folder back up and scooting back into a more comfortable position on the couch.

* * *

 **A/N -Thanks for reading! I was excited to post this chapter because I'd felt like the last couple were more so filler chapters and now everything seems to be moving along plot-wise.  
**

 **Thanks to Miss E Charlotte, Love. Fiction. 2016, and to the guest who reviewed chapter 14!**

 **It would really mean a lot to me if you'd take the time to leave a review. ^_.^**


	16. Taken

**XVI**

 _"There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me." ― Jane Austen_

* * *

" _I'm Lacey White, and this is Gotham 7 Goat Watch. Tonight, Gotham's wealthiest one percent rest fitfully under a copycat killer's deadly shadow. And if you happen to be one the city's high-society silver spoons, then you're probably headed to the Swiss Alps right now and away from the dark shadow The Goat has cast over the city."_

Bird heard the news report on the TV as she neared her father's office in Wayne Manor. It had been a couple days ago that she'd woken up to news that Amanda Hasting's body had been found and news of The Goat being resurrected started to spread throughout the city. Being adopted into wealth and not by birthright, Bird hadn't been too worried about any of it, but it was still unsettling –especially because she'd been classmates with Amanda.

Bruce looked away from the television screen as Alfred used the remote to lower the volume to where the reporter's voice was just barely audible.

"They've got them all running like rabbits." Bruce commented, looking back down to the papers spread out in front of him on the desk.

"Because it's creepy." Bird said, announcing her presence in the house as she walked into the room and gave both Bruce and Alfred a smile.

"Creepy?" Bruce asked, looking up to his sister.

"Yeah, you're too young to remember the last time this happened. I think you were only like two maybe three years old." Bird recalled, "I watched this hour long news special over the goat killer and his victims and I had nightmares for like a month straight. Mom and dad wouldn't let me watch the news after that."

"I don't know why he chose an ungulate for his totem, but he does know how to scare them, though." Bruce added.

"Yeah." Alfred nodded, fiddling the remote in his hand as he paused before asking, "You do realize you happen to be one of ' _them_ ', don't you, Master Bruce? Firstborn son of Gotham's rich and powerful." Looking between the Wayne siblings he suggested, "I don't know, maybe you should both leave town for a little bit? Perhaps down to the lake house. You both like it there, don't you?"

"I'm not going anywhere." Bird laughed, "I'm not a Wayne by blood. The goat only takes firstborns."

She looked over to her brother as she spoke and he stubbornly shook his head, "I can't imagine him coming after me, I'm the youngest." Plucking a page up from the desk he turned around to pin it up on the board as he added, "Besides, why would the goat take me? There's no one to take me from."

Alfred and Bird exchanged looks, and he let out a sigh as he stood up and said, "Well Master Bruce, we'd best head out while the day is still young."

"Alfred, it's morning." Bruce argued, not looking back to them when he continued, "And I have work to do."'

"Where are you going?" Bird questioned.

"Shopping." Alfred stated as he stood up and removed the apron he'd been wearing for breakfast's preparation, "Young Master Bruce, here, got the wild idea in his head that it would be appropriate to toss out all of his school uniforms and nearly all of his school supplies."

Turning around, Bruce let out a heavy sigh at the idea of being expected to return to school soon. He didn't really have any friends there and truthfully most of the boys in his grade were mean to him.

"Time to go back to school, huh?" She guessed with an empathetic expression on her face. She'd attended the very school he went to and she could understand why he wouldn't want to go back.

"I can take him to get what he needs." Bird offered, smirking towards Alfred as she said, "I'll buy the clothes, but it's up to you to iron the school crest on them."

"Of course, we couldn't expect anything too domestic out of Lady Wayne." Alfred said with a smile. He'd been having more and more trouble getting Bruce to leave the house, most days he never even left the study.

Weeks ago Bird had gotten him to go to breakfast with her and take a short walk afterwards, but since then he'd only left the house for the charity luncheon earlier that week.

"I'm busy." Bruce tried to decline the offer, though he already had a feeling it wasn't up for debate.

"Come on. It'll be fun." She tried to sound as chipper as possible, though the tone in her voice sounded alien to her ears. There was no denying that she had her own fair share of unhealthy habits and ways to spend her time; but she didn't want her little brother wasting his life away cooped up in their deceased father's home office.

Bruce stopped what he was doing and shot her a confused and disbelieving look, wondering what part of shopping for school uniforms or supplies could possibly be fun.

"Alright." She rolled her eyes in defeat, "The shopping part probably won't be much fun, but I'm going to meet Harvey for lunch this afternoon and you can come along… that will be fun, right? You like Harvey."

When he still didn't seem that into the idea, she suppressed a laugh when she said, "You know this is going to happen one way or another. So you can either come with me and get to see Harvey or you can wait and go with boring old Alfred."

Bruce's mouth hung open from what she'd said and Alfred started to nod along until she hit the end of her sentence and he turned her direction as he exclaimed, "I beg your pardon?"

"Sorry." She laughed, pausing for effect before saying, "You're not really boring."

"Just old, ay?" He asked, fighting back a smile.

"Yeah, no way am I going to take that part back." Bird joked.

It was then that Alfred smiled at hearing one of the rarest sounds around Wayne Manor anymore –Bruce laughing. Even if the response was at his expense, it was still a welcomed sound; one that seemed to warm the room more than the crackling fire in the hearth.

"Alright, alright." Alfred said with feigned annoyance as he motioned towards the door, "Out of here, the both of you –don't make me get the broom."

He watched with a smile on his face as they left the room together. So far Bird had been slightly more successful at being able to get Bruce out of the house, he had a suspicion it was because she'd been absent from the house for nearly two years and whether Bruce would admit it or not –he'd missed having his older sister around.

In Alfred's mind it was a win/win situation. Not only did Bruce get to be out of the house and get some fresh air for a change, but the more time Bird spent taking care of her brother meant the less time she had to be out on the streets getting herself into trouble. Maybe, he thought, maybe he'd eventually be able to get her to move back into Wayne Manor where he could keep an eye on them both.

 **~(The next night)~**

"I think that's the last of it." Bird said, closing the closet door and turning to see Oswald zipping up the travel bag she'd leant him for his belongings.

Today was the day he was finally getting to go home to the apartment he shared with his mother. In just a few days everything would change drastically again. Fish would find out he was alive and the pair of friends would have to nearly cut all contact for a while. Bird would have to go on working for her, pretending to be loyal and keeping an eye on everything from the inside; while Oswald would continue to stay by Maroni's side and report everything back to Falcone. The next couple of months would be vital to their ulterior plan of overthrowing the powerful crime bosses who ran the city and take control of Gotham for themselves.

"I could wait a few days before returning home." Oswald offered, his eyes drifting over to where the TV in her living room was on, quietly playing another news story about the Goat murders.

"No." She declined with a heavy breath, "We really need to start sticking to our timeline, the more we stray from it –the more everything falls into chaos."

Following his gaze to the TV she realized he must have been worried to leave her alone, seeing as how she came from one of Gotham's elite families.

"I'm adopted, remember?" She reminded him.

"I know that." He said, with an abrupt head turn in her direction, "But that fact isn't exactly common knowledge and that conference with the mayor you did really put you in the public eye."

Thinking back to what her brother had said the day before, she repeated it to him, "There'd be no point in taking me; there's no one to take me from."

With a heavy sigh on his lips, Oswald pointed out, "Clearly the killer is trying to send some kind of message and who better to use in sending that message than a Wayne?"

"You're worried about me." Bird realized out loud as she fought back a smile.

Oswald stared at her in silence, before he questioned, "Do you not worry about me when my life could be in danger?"

"I always worry about you." Bird stated with an arched brow, "Because you're always putting your own life in danger."

"The price we pay for friendship, I suppose." He conceded, thinking about how in the back of his mind he was also always worried about something happening to her.

"I suppose so." Bird agreed.

The room fell into a silence as neither of them quite knew what to say to the other. They weren't sure how long it would be until they were able to meet in person again and once she delivered the news to Fish that he was still alive –even a phone call to one another would pose a great risk.

"I hate this part." Bird shrugged with a weak laugh, "I'm not any good when it comes to goodbyes."

"Neither am I." He agreed, glancing in her direction as he added, "Not when it comes to you."

She nodded, biting down on the inside of her cheek; unable to think of anything else to say.

"I should go." He cleared his throat, taking another look around Bird's living room, he said, "I've already called for a taxi."

"Okay." Bird nodded, moving to the door as she opened it for him and tried to think of something to say as he came to stop just inside of the door next to her.

"I guess, uh…" Blowing out a heavy breath, Bird shook her head, "Stay safe playing a double agent."

Her words earned a soft but somber smile from him, "This is all only temporary. One day –one day soon we'll be the most powerful people in Gotham."

Stepping outside of her apartment, the handle of the suitcase was clutched in his white knuckled hands as he turned and reminded her, "We'll rule this city."

"I know."

Looking down she scuffed the toe of her shoe against the wooden floor, gathering the strength to look back up at him when he said, "Goodbye, Bird."

She didn't say bye back to him; not only was she not good at handling goodbyes but she always hated saying it –there was always a feeling of finality to the term and it was one she didn't handle well.

 **~(Later that night)~**

Bird stepped into her already running shower with a content sigh as the hot water started to rain over her skin. With her eyes closed she stood underneath the stream and tried to let the water wash away all the anxiety she was feeling.

It was just minutes prior that she'd gotten off the phone with Harvey Dent; who tried to get her to agree to either get dinner with him or let him grab something to eat and come over. Even though he didn't say it, she could tell he was also nervous about her being from a prominent family with The Goat still on the loose.

She declined the offer –in truth it would have been nice to see him, but she'd already agreed to come stay the night at Wayne Manor. It was Alfred's idea; he thought it would be safer for both Wayne children to be in the secure walls of the house and Bird had mainly agreed to it because she knew she wouldn't feel much like being alone after seeing Oswald off.  
Plus, she couldn't deny she was worried about the possibility that her brother could possibly be a target since he was technically the first born and while she trusted Alfred to protect him, Bird also thought it would be even safer for him if she was there too.

After finishing her shower and getting dressed, she ran a brush through her still damp hair and called to let Bruce know she was leaving for Wayne Manor in just a couple of minutes.

Pulling a bag off a top shelf in her closet, Bird got to work on gathering some clothes for that night and the next day. It more or less felt like her body was just mindlessly going through the motions in autopilot; in her head, her thoughts were a million miles away –obsessing and trying to plan out the next couple of days.

Oswald leaving and her knowing that she'd be the one to tell Fish about him being alive had thrown her off her game for the time being. Normally she was much more alert of her surroundings; rarely did she make the mistake of letting her guard down.  
Maybe it was because without having her best friend around she felt entirely out of her element or possibly even because she honestly didn't consider herself in danger from The Goat –either way it was a dangerous mistake to make that night.

As Bird leaned down to gather a pair of shoes out of the bottom of her closet, a strong arm snaked around her body and another hand pressed a cloth over her mouth and nose. A sweet, but suffocating scent filled her nose as she struggled to get up to her feet to fight back against her attacker, but her panic fueled gasps for air didn't do her any favors when it resulted in her breathing in a large amount of the Chloroform.

In her struggle to pull away from the man trying to incapacity her, Bird's legs kicked around wildly when he started to pull her back away from her closet. Finally her feet landed against the wall next to her closet and she managed to walk her legs up the wall high enough to get adequate stability, then she pushed with her legs and used her whole body to violently push back against him.

With a groan he fell back onto the floor pulling Bird down on top of him, but the fall had caused his hand to slip from her mouth and she gasped loudly, trying to lock as much oxygen in her lungs as she could. Bringing her elbow back she hit him hard enough in the chest that the pain briefly stunned him long enough for her to scramble to her feet.

Normally, she would have turned back around to fight and more than likely kill him. But she knew her best chance here was to make a break for it, the chemicals on the cloth she'd been breathing in had left her feeling short of breath and in a dizzying haze with her body weakened.

In a stumbling, terror driven course, she darted out of her bedroom and into the living room with a tunnel vision set on her door that was standing wide open. Freedom and safety seemed so close, but just out of reach to her as she fought to keep her eyes open and prayed her unstable feet didn't get tangled with themselves or on any of her furniture.

Even under the chemical effects from the rag he'd been holding over her airways, Bird thought that she'd still be able to use her speed to her advantage and get out of her apartment, but her attacker's determination to stop her was stronger than she could have imagined and within seconds a pair of arms wrapped around her legs and brought her down with a hard thud against her floor.

As quickly as she went down, he was on her back, pinning her down with his body in order to replace the chloroform soaked rag over her mouth and nose. Her eyes grew heavier and her body slowly lost its fight –the last thing she saw before she fell into a chemical induced sleep was her attacker's sewn together rough-edged mask of jagged leather pieces with horns on the top of it.

 **~()~**

Bird's eyes started to flutter open as the effects of the chloroform started to fade. Her head felt like it was weighed down with bricks as she fought to raise her head and see where she was.

There was a bitter taste in her cotton dry mouth and her eyes wouldn't open any farther than to allow her to squint at a man standing next to a table with some bottles and a knife and several candles, upon closer inspection she also saw white roses scattered around.

Involuntarily her head dropped back down and she saw the roses and candles scattered around the steps leading up the wooden platform her bare feet were resting against. It wasn't until she tried to move her arms that she realized they were bound with ropes out to either side of her tied to a white archway.

Blinking her eyes several times in an attempt to clear up her still blurry vision, she then realized she was wearing a white dress she'd never seen before. Confusion set in as her mind started to wake up enough to let her start piecing things together.

Raising her head she looked up to see the pointed top of the archway and then back down to all of the candles and roses; it looked like some sort of alter. Weakly, her head dropped forward again and for a split second she started to drift back off to sleep until more pieces of the puzzle fell into place and she remembered the awful mask of the person who'd taken her had been wearing; the horns she'd seen and now being strung up on some candle and white rose littered alter had to mean one thing –that she'd been taken by The Goat.

Internally she shook her head at herself; she was too weak to do so physically after all, but she couldn't believe this was happening to her. She hadn't honestly thought she'd be a target since she was adopted into wealth and not born into it.

Feelings of fear and panic started to floor her system and the though the haziness was still there, she no longer felt like she could drift back into darkness at any moment. Planting her feet firmly against the floor, she pulled with all her might on her arms hoping the ropes would give her enough slack she could pull free. If that worked she could grab the knife and kill the man who'd taken her.

Tears stung at her eyes when she realized that plan wouldn't work, the more she pulled against the ropes the tighter the knots grew against her sore skin.

Hearing the noise she was making, the man turned around and looked at her; stared at her in silence as she put in her best fight at breaking free, until she let out a frustrated noise as the feeling started to diminish in her hands.

"Trying to escape is pointless." He stated, in a gruff voice that barely even sounded human.

"You're making a mistake." She weakly said back as she cleared her throat and couldn't think of a time she was in more desperate need of a glass of water.

"You're lucky to be the sacrifice." He said, as he turned back to the table and picked up a brown glass bottle with a label she couldn't quite make out, but when he started to douse a cloth in it she guessed it had to be more chloroform.

"We're going to put you to sleep for good now." His words hung in the air as he sat the bottle down with a loud thud, but held onto the rag with the black leather gloves that covered his hands.

Raising her head back up she leaned around trying to see what ' _we_ ' he'd been referring to; when she didn't see another person the only conclusion she could come to was the goat spirit he'd supposed been killing in the name of.

As he started towards her, she used the last of the feeling and strength in her hands to tightly hold onto the rope and support her weight as she kicked her legs out and pushed him away from her.

He made an audible growling sound at her before repeating, "You're lucky to be the sacrifice."

"I thought you only killed firstborns…you didn't do your homework, did you?" She asked, a weak laugh on her lips. She had no idea if him finding out she wasn't the firstborn of Gotham's rich would save her life, at this point she was hoping to buy more time for the chloroform to continue to wear off enough that she could at least have a fighting chance against him.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, moving closer but staying just out range of where her legs would land if she tried to kick him again.

"These sacrifices you're doing, I thought you were only killing the firstborns of Gotham's one percent." Bird stammered out; hoping he didn't see the way she kept rotating her wrists trying to loosen the rope back up.

"You're –"

He started to say, but she cut him off a dose of the truth as she said in the loudest voice she could manage, "Adopted."

"You're lying!" He yelled.

Seeing the look in his eyes change behind the cut slits in the leather mask, she shook her head back and forth. Her voice was unwavering as she spoke, "Thomas and Martha Wayne adopted me fifteen years ago, I wasn't born into their family."

"No, no, no!" He yelled, seeming both outraged and manically distraught over the newly learned information.

"It's the truth." Bird asserted, her eyes were locked on him awaiting his next move.

When he walked over to the table and laid down the chloroform soaked rag and started muttering and mumbling to himself; she wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or more panicked.

Taking the opportunity to work on her restraints while he was distracted, she ignored the burning feeling the friction caused against her skin and didn't even notice the blood running from the ropes down her forearms. Her eyes darted back and forth over the white painted archway she was strung up against, searching for any loose nails or visible cracks.

If she could just pinpoint a spot of weakness in the structure then maybe she could bring it down and gain her freedom that way.

Her attention was quickly brought back to him when his mumbles turned into him yelling at himself, his voice was slightly muffled from the leather mask and at times she wasn't even sure what language he was speaking, but it was abundantly clear that he was coming completely unhinged.

Her struggle to break free grew more frantic when he knocked the contents of the table off onto the ground, and leaned down to pick up a hammer. Her eyes grew wide with fear when he turned back around to face her with the hammer clutched tightly in his gloved hand.

Luckily, before he could move closer and strike her with the hammer, there was a loud noise as the doors to the building were kicked in and two beams of flashlights moved around the room.

Bird breathed a sigh of relief when the man who'd abducted her, scurried away in the opposite direction from her; appearing to take the handmade wooden stairs that led up to the sacrificial alter at least two at a time.

With a groan of pain, her eyes struggled in the beams of light from the two flashlights pointing at her. When the lights finally lowered enough that her eyes could focus again, she saw the pair of lights being pointed at her belonged to Bullock and Jim. She couldn't ever remember a time when she'd been happier to see anyone from the GCPD.

Both of their attention was pulled across the room behind them where there was a rustling sound, followed by a few bats taking flight towards the large cathedral ceilings and though moonlight seeping in through the shattered windows illuminated the dark shadowy form of a man on a tall balcony.

"Go get her." Bullock instructed his partner, before he fled in the opposite direction, ready to take down the nut job who'd been killing under the persona of the spirit of the goat –something he thought he'd put a stop to ten years ago.

Jim looked at the rickety wooden stairs, but didn't waste much time before scrambling up the uneven height stairs; at some points he had to hold onto the railing and pull himself up to the next step. How The Goat had managed to carry Bird up those stairs was beyond him for the moment when he was doing good to climb them solo.

Once he reached the top, there was another tall step leading right to the base of the alter she was strung up to. Looking down to the floor, Jim quickly located a knife and climbed up on that step.

"Are you hurt?" He questioned, fearing that cutting the ropes holding her in place might do more harm than good if she was injured.

"I don't think so." She breathed in a weak voice, as her head slumped forward again from the total state of collapse her mind was body was in.

"Okay, just hold on. I'm going to get you down." He promised, eyeing her before he cut the several loops of red rope across her abdomen securing her body to the wooden post directly behind her. After which, he got to work cutting the ropes that bound her wrists.

When the last rope that was holding her up was cut, her body slumped forward against him and for the first time she could feel how extremely weak she was, so much so she couldn't stand on her own two legs.

"I've got you." He assured her, feeling how labored her breathing was he added, "You're safe now, it's okay."

Nodding she clutched onto him, until he got them both down from the tall step and got her sat down on it.

"Stay here." He instructed, not wanting to leave her alone after what she'd been through, but he knew his partner needed his help and the best way to help Bird would be to tell her they got the guy who'd abducted and intended to kill her.

Where the hell was she going to go? She thought in her head, but didn't even possess the energy to make the snarky remark out loud, instead she only nodded in agreement with him.

Just as he started to descend the stairs, her voice came out slightly raspy and broken as she called out to him, "Jim, he's got a weapon… a hammer."

With a short nod of thanks, he took the stairs back down as fast as possible to help Bullock and arrest the assailant.

Bird fought to keep her eyes open, as she sluggishly moved her hand around the floor until she located the knife that Jim had used to cut her free. With a tight grip on the handle she sat in place and fought against the urge to nod off to sleep; if The Goat got past the detectives and came back to finish what he'd started then she was going to be ready for him.

* * *

 **A/N- I hope you all liked the chapter.**

 **Thank you to Miss E Charlotte and SusieSamurai for reviewing chapter 15. ^_^**


	17. A Glimpse Behind the Curtain

**XVII**

 _"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."_ _― Jane Austen_

* * *

Hearing a knock on the door, Bird raised her head from where she was sitting up in the hospital bed.

"Come in…" She called out, thinking it must be one of the hospital staff since her brother and Alfred had left a few minutes ago.

"Hey." Jim greeted as he walked in, eyeing the pair of black pants and light purple sweat shirt she was wearing before asking, "How you holding up?"

Ignoring his question she looked down to her clothes as she explained, "One of the nurses had a change of clothes in her locker she let me borrow." Pulling on the loose sleeves of the shirt that was a couple sizes larger than she wore, Bird tried to joke, "Some strange man changed my clothes while I was unconscious, guess she thought I'd been exposed enough already and didn't want me to have to wear one of those open back hospital gowns. You know, since you made them take the dress that Goat put on me."

"It's evidence." He reminded her, repeating his earlier question, "You holding up okay?"

"I'm fine." She stated, looking around the room as she pulled in a deep ragged breath and said, "Thank you for saving me."

He nodded with a smile at her, rubbing his hand over his short hair he said, "I passed Bruce and Alfred in the hallway downstairs."

"Yeah." She smiled, "I asked them to go raid the vending machines just to get them out of the room for a minute. They both just kept staring at me-"

"They almost lost you." Jim pointed out, "They're the ones who called the station. When you didn't show up at Wayne Manor like you were supposed to, they went to your apartment and called the police."

Her eyebrows furrowed and her jaw tensed in anger as she asked, "The police were in my apartment?"

"Some of us, yes." Jim answered her, pausing for a moment as he remembered all the clear decorative fish bowls full of various items; everything from jewelry to polished rocks and marbles, "Interesting choice in decorations."

"Whoa, whoa. What are you doing?" Jim asked, as Bird stood up too fast and nearly lost her balance in a dizzy spell. Helping her sit back down in the bed he asked, "Where are you going?"

"Home." She practically grunted, as she tried to get back up but he blocked her way and made her sit back down, "If anyone was in my apartment than they moved my stuff around and I need to get home and fix it."

"It's nothing that can't be dealt with tomorrow." He tried to make her feel better.

"You don't understand." She breathed, shaking her head almost violently –a choice she immediately regretted when the room started to spin and in response she got nauseous.

Holding her head and groaning, she asked, "You got everything you needed from my place, right? Evidence and all? I can go back home tonight, right?"

"Yes, but I don't think they'll release you tonight." He pointed out, thinking back to the conversation he'd had with her nurse.

"They can't hold me here." She argued; still seeming very agitated as she spoke.

"True, but it might be in your best interest to stay-" He started to say, but Bird was having no part of it when she cut him off, "No, I don't need to stay."

"For most people the effects of the chloroform would have already worn off." Jim said, his voice elevated as he spoke. Pulling in a deep breath, a stern look appeared on his face when he explained why she was still struggling to come entirely out of the haze, "You've got relatively high levels of both Valium and Vicodin in your system."

Mistaking his concern for an accusation, her head cocked to the side as she explained, "I've got prescriptions for them."

"I'm sure." He replied with raised eyebrows, "And probably a handful of doctors at your beck and call."

"Something like that." She shrugged.

"Mixing just those two medications can cause drowsiness and make you dizzy." Jim repeated what the nurse had told him, "Add chloroform on top of that and…"

Pulling in a breath he said in a softer voice, "According to what they told me here, you're pretty lucky to have woke up from it at all."

"That's me… lucky." She breathed, reaching over to the bedside table for her glass of water and avoiding his eyes as she spoke.

Jim blew out a sigh as he watched her; a prior conversation they'd had about her not wanting Bruce to see a psychiatrist since some of them think prescribing a pill for everything is the best treatment option. He had a feeling that was something that had happened in her past, but he couldn't be sure. After all, she only ever gave bits of pieces of her life story to him and most of it was spoken in a rather cryptic manner –at times leaving him to wonder if what she said was even true.

"Does the name Raymond Earl mean anything to you?" Jim asked, as he pulled the small notepad of paper from his pocket. He wasn't only there to check on her, he was also there for work purposes.

"No, why? should it?" She asked, setting her glass back down before it slowly dawned on her why he'd be asking her that, "Is that the guy who tried to kill me?"

Jim nodded.

"No, I don't know him and he must not have known me either." Bird explained, sitting up farther in the bed and tucking her legs under her as she reasoned, "He didn't know I was adopted and when I told him, he completely flipped out. Started talking to himself and just coming completely unhinged. That's when he grabbed the hammer."

Jim made note of everything she told him and explained how Earl had worked for a custodial and maintenance company that serviced the building her apartment was in and that was how he'd gotten a key to slip into her apartment to abduct her, after that he took down the rest of her statement.

 **~()~**

Oswald poked his head out from the alcove in the wall he'd ducked into when he'd spotted Jim Gordon go into Bird's hospital room. He'd already spent the better part of twenty minutes hiding out when he saw her brother and that butler of theirs go into her room.

It was a risk for him to even be there, at any moment he could be spotted by someone who'd recognize him, but he'd seen on the news that Bird had been found alive and rescued from The Goat, who police now had in custody. His heart had completely sank when he heard the news –he hadn't even known she'd been missing. It had then occurred to him that she must have been taken not very long after he'd left.

He'd had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he shouldn't have left to go back home when he did, but at the time he'd pushed the feeling aside thinking that it was just the thoughts of not being able to see her for a while that was making him feel ill.

Finally, he saw Jim leave her room and after another quick visual scan of the hallway, Oswald hobbled as fast as he could into her room and shut the door behind him. Turning around he saw Bird sitting on the edge of the bed with the sleeves of her shirt pushed up as she picked at the bandages over her bruised and bloody wrists.

Hearing the door shut she looked up and a look of complete surprise lit her features as she stared at him.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, the sleeves of the shirt that was too big on her, immediately fell down and swallowed up her bandaged wrists when she got to her feet to face him.

In response, his head tilted to the side and the expression on his face let her know she'd probably asked the stupidest possible question; she'd been abducted, hurt and nearly killed.

"Nothing could have kept me away." He simply stated, his eyes scanning her for any other possible signs of injury.

He caught a glimpse of the smile his words put on her lips, before she glanced down to the floor and tucked her long hair behind her ears when she pointed out, "Someone could have seen you-"

She started to say, but her cut her off –he was fully aware of how risky a trip to the hospital could be, there was a cowardice voice in his head the entire way there that had tried to get him to turn back.

"I needed to see you with my own two eyes." He said, taking a step closer as he added, "You have no idea how relieved I am to see you're not seriously injured."

She nodded with a small smile, but it didn't come close to reaching her eyes and earned a question from him, "You are okay, aren't you?"

"Someone got into my apartment and chloroformed me, then while I was knocked out he changed my clothes and strung me up on some sacrificial altar –where he fully intended on killing me." She repeated the events of her evening and night in a snappier tone than she'd meant to use with him.

His jaw tensed in response to the tone she'd taken with him and if she hadn't just been through something so harrowing then he'd probably have snapped back at her. His harsh stare softened as he watched her arms fold over herself like she was trying to shrink down, and her knuckles started to turn white from gripping onto the fabric so tightly.

It was then that he realized it wasn't just nearly being killed that had shaken her up, but the fact that someone undressed her against her will while she'd been unconscious. Anyone would feel violated from that happening, but for Bird it was starting to stir thoughts and demons in her head that she'd tried to put to rest after she'd been raped, shot and left for dead as a teenager.

Oswald's vision blurred from rage at the thoughts now racing through his mind, and almost instantly Bird could tell he'd mentally left the room they were in.

"Oswald?" She asked, walking closer to him.

"He will suffer dearly for what he put you through." Oswald said, his teeth clenched as he swore out loud to himself, "He will pay with far more than his life."

"Hey…" She breathed, reaching a hand out and placing it on his arm to bring him back to the present and out of the revenge fueled illusions surely playing behind his eyes.

Blinking rapidly and fighting against the anger driven nervous twitch his right eye had taken on, Oswald looked down to where her hand was still on his arm, before his eyes locked with hers.

"It's okay." She assured him, "Bullock and Jim caught him red handed, there's no way he's going to skate past the mountain of charges they've got against him."

He could have sworn her brown eyes darkened to an almost black hue, as her arm dropped back to her side and she added, "Besides, if for some reason he actually avoided being locked up in prison for the rest of his life –he's mine."

Running his tongue over his bottom lip, Oswald started to say something but before he got the chance there was a knock at the door.

Both friends stared at each wide-eyed for a moment, before she yelled, "Just a minute!" towards the door and Oswald moved to the other side of the curtain that divided the room in half. Thankfully, the other hospital bed was empty and he was easily able to hide.

Once he was behind the curtain and safely out of sight, Bird turned back towards the door, "Come in."

She'd expected it to be her brother and Alfred returning or maybe even Jim coming back with more questions or possibly another person in the endless chain of hospital staff that had been in and out of her room for one reason or another.

However when the door opened she saw she was wrong in her assumptions and it wasn't until Bird saw him that she realized how much she'd needed to see him after everything that had happened.

"Harvey…" She breathed, internally cringing when her voice came out much weaker than she'd intended as she saw her boyfriend standing in front of her wearing one of the most concerned expressions she'd ever seen from him; and in their time of knowing one another she'd seen quite a few.

Wordless, he quickly scanned her over checking her physical wellbeing, before he rushed forward and wrapped her in a tight embrace; silently thanking whatever higher power had been watching out for her that night and had brought her back to him for the most part unharmed.

A wave of emotions flooded over her as she stood in his arms and she pinned her eyes shut to contain the tears that burned at her eyes like a lit match. For the first time that night she really felt like what she'd been through was over; she felt safe.

Despite knowing he needed to remain perfectly still until the room was clear, once Oswald heard the name he'd been despising ever since he'd heard it first leave her lips –he couldn't stop himself from moving the curtain just enough to get a look at the man he felt was stealing Bird away from him.

A decision he immediately regretted when he saw them locked in a rather affectionate looking embrace. His body trembled with anger as he watched them; he'd had a feeling every time Bird left her apartment she'd been meeting up with him, but she never told him where she was going and he didn't ask.

Bird had seemed happy to see him, but it seemed to pale in comparison to how content she seemed with Harvey there. Maybe it was the hug, he cursed himself inside his head as the thoughts came to light. Why didn't he hug her? Trying to be a source of comfort was an alien feeling to him, but maybe it shouldn't have been when it came to her.

The storm in his stomach continued to grow as he watched them and got a better look at Harvey Dent. He was tall and conventionally handsome; seemingly everything Oswald himself seemed to be lacking.

"I'm not going to ask if you're okay, because after everything how could you be?" Harvey finally spoke as he took a step back to get a better look at her. In response to his words she gave him a somber and tired half-smile, appreciating the sentiment. It was a welcome relief to not have to answer that question for the millionth time that night, especially when she herself wasn't entirely sure of the answer.

"I'm just glad you're safe." He admitted, his eyes locking with hers as he spoke before he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. The moment was short lived when both of their attention was drawn to the center of the room at the sounds of the metal rings at the top of the curtain harshly colliding with one another as the curtain was almost violently jerked shut.

"Is someone else here?" Harvey asked her in a quiet voice as an uneasy feeling started to creep up his spine. The very feeling of the room had changed and not only did he now feel watched, he didn't feel safe.

"Roommate." She blurted out an answer, letting out a small chuckle to sell the lie as she tried to joke, "You think being a Wayne that they'd have at least given me a private room."

Her words earned a small smile from him, but he still couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling that had crept into every corner of the room around him.

Glancing back to the curtain for a moment and knowing they needed to get out of the room so Oswald could leave unseen, Bird said, "We should probably go find my brother and Alfred, I sent them to get something to drink and they've been gone for a while."

"Yeah, I think I saw them downstairs." Harvey agreed, though at this point he felt anxious enough that any reason would have proved valid enough for him to leave.

"Let's go then." She nodded to the door, "I think I need to sign something before I can leave."

Even though he heard them both leave the room and pull the door shut behind them, Oswald couldn't bring himself to move out from behind the curtain that shielded him from the rest of the room –the curtain he regretted every peeking out from behind.

Once he knew it was Harvey Dent who'd came to see Bird, he knew stealing a glance at them together would only bring himself pain. Apparently his friendship with Bird had somewhat turned him into part masochist, despite knowing what seeing them together would do to him –he couldn't look away.

His entire life he'd been looked down upon, he'd grown up bullied so horribly in school days that he didn't even have a single friend at the time. No one ever stood up for him or tried to stop the seemingly endless torment. It felt like the only person on earth who actually cared about him was his mother; who'd doted on him like he didn't possess a single flaw.

He was well aware that the unusually close relationship they had would look strange to most people; some might even call it inappropriate, but he didn't see it that way. He couldn't, after all he was sure that had it not been for her being there to build him back up every time he got knocked down that he wouldn't have survived this long.

For so many years he'd came to believe that the only person who could make him feel better; make him feel human was his mother –until he met Bird. The word friendship paled to describe the bond they had forged in the years they'd known each other. She'd became the first thing he often thought about when waking up in the morning and the last thing he thought of before he drifted off to sleep at night, the thought of not being able to see her twisted his stomach into knots and the idea of losing her was nothing short of absolutely crippling.

He knew how strongly he felt about her, the ways in which she could draw feelings and emotions from him that no one else could and he couldn't deny that a part of him longed for something deeper and more intimate than just friendship between them. A part of him that could be kept a bay when there was no threat of someone else filling that role in her life. He might have longed for more, but he felt perfectly content when it was just the two of them.

He'd gotten used to having her all to himself, but now it felt like the world had been thrown out of balance and he knew Harvey was to blame for that and now seeing the man he was sure was stealing Bird's heart made him feel even worse. Not only did Harvey seem to be the exact opposite of Oswald in every sense of the word, it was torture to see that –that was the type of guy she was romantically interested in.

For months now Oswald had been telling himself that once they were on top of the crime game in Gotham, once he was king –then would be his chance to make a move and let her know how he felt once and for all. Foolishly, he'd led himself to believe that once he'd finally made a name for himself it would be enough to win her affections in all the ways he'd wanted them.

All of the uncertainty and wondering if she could ever reciprocate his feelings ate away at him. Most days he'd convinced himself that there wasn't a chance in hell that someone like her could feel that way about someone like him, but there were other days he didn't feel so different from her. She'd never once made him feel like he was beneath her in any way at all and there were even a few times he could have sworn she looked at him with a glint of something more than companionship in her eyes.

 **~(Flashback)~**

Oswald placed a hand on the side of his face and felt how swollen his skin was, it wasn't until he'd pulled his hand back that he even realized he was bleeding. The situation with one of Fish Mooney's henchman had escalated from bad to worse so fast his mind was still trying to catch up.

"You gotta learn when to keep your mouth shut around people like that." Bird stated with a small sigh, as she sat down on her coffee table and faced Oswald as he sat silently on her couch.

Her hands rested on a metal cased first-aid kit she'd retrieved from her bathroom moments prior, she'd been nervous to leave him alone even for a minute with how quiet he'd been since she'd helped him out of the club and into a taxi.

"Oswald?" She questioned in a leery tone; starting to wonder if they should have went to the hospital instead of her place.

He moved his head slightly to get a better look at her from the eye that wasn't swelling shut, and she mentally noted it was a good sign that his eyes could focus at least –though his lack of words still had her worried.

"Should I take you to the hospital?" She questioned.

"No." He finally found his voice and answered her.

"Okay…" She breathed, tapping her feet on the floor as she looked around her living room, "Can we at least wash the blood off your face?"

Again his words seemed to get lost before they reached his tongue, so he gave a curt nod in place of a verbal answer.

He picked up her feelings of irritation when she dropped the metal case to the table with a loud clank before disappearing into the kitchen momentarily to wet some warm cloths. The spell of silence seemed to have found it's way to her when she returned to the room and sat back down on the coffee table.

He let out a pained noise when she started to scrub the blood from the side of his face; though it felt to him like she was trying to scrub his flesh off. When he tried to shy away from the pain, she placed her other hand on the intact side of his face to hold his head still, and he could have sworn when her fingers brushed over his skin that they held their own electric charge.

His breath caught in his throat at the feeling and he no longer tried to back away from her, not for a few more minutes at least when the pain was starting to become unbearable and he questioned through gritted teeth, "Are you trying to remove what's left of my skin?"

Letting go of him, she scooted back on the table and looked down to the nature print handtowel that was now stained crimson.

Pulling in a breath she said, "You haven't even been working for Fish for two weeks. I talked her into hiring you and you know how bad this makes me look now, right?"

He looked up at her and she looked away as she said in a quieter voice, "Especially after her last two umbrella boys _mysteriously disappeared_." She finished her sentence with air quotations. Both she and Oswald knew exactly where the last few umbrella boys had gone; they were no longer among the living.

"It's not as though I intended for this to happen." His voice hissed from between his teeth as he argued with her.

"But you didn't do much to stop it either."

"What would you have liked for me to have done then?" He demanded to know, and in response to his tone, she dropped the bloody rag onto the table next to her and stood up.

Crossing the small room she walked over to her unlit fire place and turned her back to him with her arms folded over her chest. From where he was sitting he could tell she was shaking her head back and forth, clearly refraining from saying something.

"Out with it!" His voice shook as he yelled at her and his splitting headache became impossible to ignore.

"Honestly, what did you expect?" She asked, her arms dropping to her sides as she spun back around to face him. "You're new at the club and they're going to see what they can do, to get a rise out of you. Until Fish fully starts to accept and trust you –you need to just do you job and stay to yourself. Those goons are just dumb muscle; there for protection and intimidation and to sometimes take the fall when everything goes to hell."

Taking a few steps closer, she reminded him, "But you're the umbrella boy, not exactly the most flattering title… but once she trusts you, you will be one of her most trusted employees; practically attached to her hip and that's what you need to learn the ins and outs of everything. This is how we start to take over Gotham City, remember? Oswald this was your idea!"

"I know the plan very well." He assured her, with his voice back down to it's normal tone. Rather than continue to argue with her, he dropped back down into his seat on the couch and avoided her harsh gaze.

The expression on her face softened as she watched him, despite his choosing to no longer argue with her, he had a look on his face like she didn't have any idea what was really going on.

"What is it?" Bird asked, re-crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against her closed bedroom door as she watched him.

"He called me penguin." Oswald explained, though his voice was so soft she could barely understand what he'd said to her.

"So you hit him? He had to be at least twice your size." Bird replied, her own voice soft and barely audible over the sounds of the busy streets below them.

There was a weak half-smile on his lips as he glanced at her, before focusing his eyes on the floor and dismissing, "I don't think you understand."

"I understand." She argued with him, dropping her arms back to her sides and looking around the small living room that still had boxes from the move pushed against walls from moving in barely a week before.

"You don't." Oswald said, his own eyes drifting around the room in order to keep from having to look at her.

"We all have sources of pain, Oswald." She reminded him.

Her words finally earned a glance from him and he didn't have an argument about what she'd said. He knew she'd experienced a great deal of pain in her lifetime, but this was still different. The cruel nickname had followed him throughout his entire life and though he didn't expect to be fully accepted at the club on his first night, he'd also held out the hope that this would be a new start for himself. After all, people from all walks of life both worked at and frequented the club –yet he was the one they'd all started to pick on.

"You're still looking at me like I have no idea what I'm talking about." She pointed out as she walked back over to him and sat down on the coffee table again. Picking up the wet bloodstained cloth, she folded the fabric to a clean side and wiped the last of the blood from the side of his face as she softly said, "I'm your best friend, you can tell me anything, you know that, right?"

He wanted to answer her and his mouth hung open as he tried to find the words to tell her he knew that, but the longer he stared into her eyes with their faces in such close proximity, the more any words or even logical thoughts evaded him.

Leaning back some, a small smirk graced her glossed lips as she pointed out, "Actually I'm your only friend." There was a playfulness to her voice as she spoke, and he smiled even though her words could have been taken rather offensively. She was right, but he didn't mind it in the slightest, he considered himself lucky to have her in his life. Plus, the sentiment went both ways because she didn't exactly have a phonebook full of friends either.

"My mother warned me when I just a child that there would always be bullies." He finally said, looking down to the swollen knuckles on his hand, he pulled in a shallow breath and admitted, "I didn't believe her at the time. I suppose as a child does, I could only see what was right in front of me and it didn't seem possible that it could or would go on forever. Then as I grew up and became painfully aware that she was right all along…" His voice trailed off and he shook his head back and forth. He hated admitting it to himself, let alone say it out loud how much the constant torment he'd faced had torn him up inside was still such a burden to bear.

"What makes it worse is its always the same name…" He breathed, his teeth clenched tight enough his gums started to ache as he spit out the nickname he despised above all others, "Penguin."

With a small smile, Bird asked, "When you got bullied, what did your mother say to make you feel better?"

Bird had met Oswald's mother for the first time a few months back, and the entire encounter was still fresh in her mind. She'd never met anyone as eccentric as Gertrude, nor had she ever seen a mother dote on their adult child as much as she did.

"She'd tell me not to listen to what the other children said, that I was far more clever than they were and…" His voice trailed off, until Bird pushed, "And what?"

"That I was handsome." He admitted, feeling rather ridiculous saying that out loud when it clearly seemed like his mother was the only person on earth who could view him in that lighting, "Then she'd tell me that I'd be a great man someday."

"And did that make you feel better?" Bird asked him, her eyes intense as she stared at him and awaited the answer.

"Yes." He admitted, before contradicting his answer by shaking his head back and forth.

"But, she's your mother and is supposed to tell you that sort of stuff?" Bird guessed.

He offered her a slight smile as he nodded in agreement with her words.

"Okay, well then… you want to know what I think?" Bird questioned.

Oswald looked at her, his blue eyes a little wide as he wasn't sure of the answer to his friend's question. Bird could be rather blunt at times and he had no idea what she was about to say to him.

"I think that you had to have been cleverer than the other children, because you're quite possibly the cleverest person I've ever met." She spoke quietly, with sincerity in her tone as she watched him.

"Your mom is right about the rest of it too; you are handsome." She said, and instantly his mouth felt dry as cotton and he could barely bring himself to look back at her, "And I think that you're already a great man."

"You're only saying that in an attempt to make me feel better." He argued with her, finally getting the courage to look back at her as he politely nodded, "Thank you."

"I'm not just saying that." She asserted, reaching out and placing a hand on his arm as she continued, "If I didn't believe it, I wouldn't have said it. I have no reason to lie to you."

The room fell into a silence and all he could bring himself to do was stare at her and wonder if there was any truth to her words, while she opened up the first-aid kit and started to set supplies up to clean and bandage his wounds.

"Maybe I'll take tomorrow off work." He stammered out, just trying to fill the silence and strike up a new conversation, "He might decide to smash the other side of my face when he sees me again."

Knowing that Oswald was referring to the henchman he'd gotten into a fight with, Bird smiled widely at him –catching her friend off guard. "What?" He questioned, his blue eyes wide again.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about him anymore." She shrugged still practically smiling from ear-to-ear.

His head cocked slightly to the side as he waited on her to explain what she was all smiles for.

"You know how Fish loves her jewelry?" Bird asked, earning a nod of an answer from him before she continued, "Well, she has a locked door in her desk where she keeps jewelry in case she feels like a midday accessory swap-"

"What are you saying?" Oswald asked, waving a hand through the air and cutting her off when he felt she was starting to ramble and he just wanted her to get to the point of her story.

"What I'm saying is that after I got you into the taxi, I went back into the club and into Fish's office and swiped one of her necklaces." Her smile grew as she continued, "Then I planted it on the guy who fought you and then I told Butch he should shake the guy down because _you_ saw him coming out of Fish's office earlier in the day when he had no reason to be in there."

It was now his turn to smile when he realized that meant he'd never have to see him again.

"See?" Bird asked, "Not only will he die a bloody, painful death… but since there was no witnesses to the fight you can claim it was because you confronted him about the theft and he was trying to shut you up..."  
"Which will earn me some points with Fish." Oswald continued, practically stealing the words from her mouth as he cut her off, the smile on his lips growing even more when he realized the risk she'd taken to help him.

No one had ever done that for him before, no one in his entire life had ever even stood up for him and this was exactly why he didn't mind at all that he only had one friend to his name. It was times like this that he was reminded of why she'd came to mean so much to him over the last few years and why he'd do anything to keep her in his life.

 **~(End of flashback)~**

* * *

 **A/N - You guys didn't think Bird and Oswald would actually be good at staying away from one another, did you? lol  
**

 **I hope you all liked the chapter. You can follow me on my Tumblr (sagelondyn) to see all the edits and everything I've made to go along with this story and some of my others. I also recently posted a playlist on 8tracks with songs that remind me of Bird and Oswald, I have a Bird x Harvey playlist on the way and also just a general soundtrack for the story is also in the works.  
**

 **Thank you so much to Miss E Charlotte and SusieSamurai for reviewing the last chapter and always being so lovely and supportive! And I would also like to thank MzzLightwood for binge reading the story and leaving reviews along the way!**

 **Okay I'll stop all my rambling now. Haha. ^_.^**


	18. Hole in the Head

**XVIII**

 _"Pain is real when you get other people to believe in it. If no one believes in it but you, your pain is madness or hysteria." - Naomi Wolf  
_

* * *

Bird's eyes squinted in the sunlight as she started to wake up facing the window side of her bedroom. With a pained groan she flopped over on her stomach and faced away from the nearly blinding mid-afternoon sunbeams.

There was a brief almost blissful moment where the day felt like just any other, but it was short lived when she opened her eyes again and they focused on her bandaged wrist laying on the pillow next to her face and memories of the hell she'd gone through seeped back into her drowsy mind.

Her head felt like someone had used a jackhammer on her temples for the better part of the night and her arms and wrists were still painfully sore from the ropes she'd been bound with. She wanted nothing more than to just go back to sleep and wake up a few days later when she wouldn't be hurting as bad mentally and physically.

Managing to get herself sat up on the side of her bed, she opened the drawer on her nightstand and retrieved a bottle of prescription pain pills. Popping a few of them in her mouth, she chased them down the entire contents of a glass of water that had been sitting next to her bed for God knows how long.

The more she thought about it, the more the appeal sleeping through the next few days seemed to have. It wouldn't be the first time she'd slept through multiple consecutive days, but now wasn't the time to start that again.

Tomorrow she'd have to go see Fish and tell her that Oswald was still alive and in the days following she'd be spending as much time as possible around her boss to ensure her friend's safety –plus do what she could to help keep Jim alive during that time. Change was coming, she could feel it in her bones, like the deep rumble of thunder in the distance before a huge storm.

Then there was Harvey Dent, who'd refused to leave her side the day before after she declined Alfred's and her brother's offer to stay the night at Wayne Manor where she wouldn't be alone after what she'd gone through. It was nice of them, but all she wanted to do was get back to her own apartment –Wayne Manor had never quite felt like home to her.

With that thought, she looked behind her to the otherwise empty bed and started to wonder where Harvey had gone, the last thing she remembered was buzzing all around her living room trying to rearrange her belongings that had gotten moved in either the struggle with The Goat, or the police search afterwards and Harvey trying to get her to take a break and calm down.

The polite thing to do would be to call him and thank him for putting up with her, even when he saw her at one of her low points where she probably appeared slightly crazed –being in a serious relationship was something new to her and she couldn't help but feel like he got a glimpse behind the curtain before he was attached enough to her that it wouldn't scare him away.

So much needed to be done when the only thing she felt like doing was retreating within in her own head for at least a week.

Quickly locating her cellphone on her bedside table, she stared at the false name she had Oswald's number stored under and against her better judgement and their agreeing to stay away from one another –she called him. It only rang about three times before it went to voicemail, making it clear he'd ignored her call.

Maybe he was at work with Maroni and couldn't take her call, or possibly even a meeting with Falcone. She hoped that was the case, that he was in the middle of doing something important and not just simply ignoring her.

For years it had just been the two of them, and they'd probably spent time together almost every single day -especially since she'd moved out on her own. She could see how her relationship with Harvey, might be hard for her best friend to handle. With the way Oswald's mother doted on him it was clear to see he was the sole center of her entire world and most days it seemed like he expected that same level of attention from Bird.

After trying to call him once more only to see the call was still being directed to voicemail, she closed her phone and blew out a heavy sigh as she tossed it onto her bedside table and rubbed her hands over her face with the realization that her best friend was, in fact, ignoring her calls.

Just as she stood up, she could have sworn she heard her front door open. Her eyes cut over to her closed bedroom door and her heart started to race so fast it felt like it might crack her rib cage. On her bare feet, she silently crossed the room and cracked the door enough to see Harvey setting a carrier with two coffee cups and a small bag displaying the label of a bakery across the street she was known to frequent, down on the blanket she had put over her coffee table to hide the collage Oswald had left there when he moved out.

Shutting the door, she leaned against the frame and looked around her room as she shook her head and wondered what he was still doing there. She'd assumed he must have already gone to work.

There was a soft knock on her door just before she heard him ask, "Starling?"

"Uh… yeah?" She questioned.

"I thought I heard you shut the door." He replied, before explaining, "I went to this little bakery across the street and picked up some coffee and doughnuts."

"Oh okay…" She answered, shaking her head at herself before she cleared her throat and said, "I'll be out in a minute, just trying to get ready."

When she heard footsteps on the hardwood floor retreat from her door, she dropped her head back against the wall with a thud.

It was nice of him to still be there, especially after he'd seen her frantically darting all over her apartment like a crazy person just several hours before and there was no denying how much she liked and cared about him, but she'd hoped he'd already gone to work for the day.

After everything that happened the day before she wanted to be left alone to face what had happened. She'd made a promise to herself years ago that she'd never allow herself to feel as weak, powerless and helpless as she felt the night when she was attacked as a teenager. She'd put in years of training –both mentally and psychically, to assure she'd never feel like she couldn't take care of herself and now one night had felt like it had all been washed away.

There wasn't any way Harvey could understand that and she certainly didn't feel like trying to explain it, for the moment she just wanted to be alone, but it didn't look like that was going to happen.

Looking back around the room, her eyes stopped on where she'd left her cellphone laying on the bedside table and she had to admit to herself that she didn't truly want to be alone –it was just that Oswald, the one person she actually wanted around her during this time wasn't even answering his phone.

 **~()~**

Hearing the bedroom door open, Harvey looked up from where he was sitting and a confused look fell over his face when he saw Bird was still in the clothes a nurse at the hospital had lent her the night before. The same black pants and light purple sweatshirt she'd also chosen to sleep in once he'd finally gotten her calmed down enough to rest.

"What?" Bird asked, lingering in the doorway when she saw the look on his face.

"Nothing." He said, offering a smile even though she'd told him she was getting ready for the day and left him sitting there for nearly fifteen minutes, she was still in the same clothes as the day before and her hair clearly hadn't even been brushed.

With a look of disbelief on her face, she crossed the room and sat down on her couch with her legs tucked up underneath her.

"What?" He questioned when Bird kept eyeing him suspiciously.

"Nothing." She shrugged, taking the coffee he offered her before she explained, "I'm just surprised you're here is all… I thought you might have already gone to work."

"I took the day off." Harvey answered, wondering from the nearly unhinged look in her eyes if she was about to burst into another almost manic episode of darting all over the place moving things around and claiming she was putting stuff back in their rightful place.

"For me?" She questioned, feeling awkward and out of place sitting on her own couch. Normally she felt entirely comfortable around him, but not today. Today she was too self-aware and knew how mad she had to have seemed to him the night before.

"Yes." He admitted, glancing at her from the corner of his eye as he spoke.

The uncomfortable feeling was thick in the air in her living room and he wasn't a stranger to it that day. It wasn't unusual for Bird to say or do something that seemed a little strange to him, but normally he didn't mind it –it had actually became one of her traits he'd started to fall for, he never knew what to expect with her.  
But this was different, instead of having coffee with his girlfriend, he felt more like he was sitting down with a stranger.

"Thank you." She abruptly said, like it was an automated response instead of something she was feeling. "You didn't have to though."

Turning to face her, he watched her taking a few sips of from her cup and the way she held it in both of her hands clearly appreciating the heat.

"You're staring." Bird noticed, her voice barely over a whisper as she spoke to him.

"You scared me last night." He admitted, not able to take the insincere niceties and one word responses any longer.

She didn't know if he was referring to thinking he might have lost her when she was missing or her behavior afterwards –she didn't dare ask which one.

Harvey watched her closely when she didn't answer him, or even look at him. He wasn't sure if she just didn't want to talk about it or if she was trying to wish him away considering he had the feeling like she didn't really want him there in the first place, but he'd cared too much about her to leave.

"I'm sorry."

Her words irritated him, though he didn't let it show. He wanted some kind of explanation as to why she'd spent the late night and early morning acting like an escapee from a mental ward.

"You don't have to apologize." He replied, letting the room fall back into an uncomfortable silence before he tried to change the subject in an attempt to get her to communicate with him.

"I was going to make a pot of coffee here, but there's not really room in your kitchen for anything." Harvey pointed out, pulling in a breath as he commented, "You've uh, you've got enough food in there to feed a small army."

Bird refused to look at him, just sat there picking apart the powdered doughnut in her hand, only eating a small piece of it at a time.

This was the exact reason she'd stopped branching out and trying to meet people, there were certain things about her that were just too strange for others to accept and if she tried to explain herself they'd probably only want to leave her sooner.

Oswald was the only person she'd met who'd immediately accepted her and didn't make her feel like she needed to explain her every other thought and action. He'd also never made her feel like she wasn't enough which in turn stopped her from worrying about him abandoning her. Her eyebrows furrowed with thoughts of him and how she wished he'd just answer his phone.

"If you don't want me here, you can tell me." Harvey finally said and despite his best efforts to hold it in anger laced his words. He knew he didn't have a reason to be mad at her, not after what she'd been through, but the feeling of her pulling away and the fact that she wouldn't even speak to him now was maddening.

"I didn't say that." Bird argued, irritation in her own voice. Nodding to her door she added, "You can leave if you want… I get it."

"Get what?" Harvey questioned, his eyes bore into hers and she diverted her gaze as she answered, "My apartment is the one place I have that is entirely mine and where I can be myself. That's why very few people have actually been in here. It's a glimpse behind the veil that not a lot of people can or want to handle. So it's okay, you don't have to stay. I get it, sometimes I'm just too much."

Her words left a bitter taste in her mouth that had nothing to do with the coffee she'd been sipping on. It was strange, she thought, how she could manage to be too much and not enough all at once.

"I don't want to leave." Harvey admitted, "I don't want the polite thank yous and the yes/no answers, I want an explanation."

With a small shrug he reasoned, "Maybe you don't owe me one, but I spent hours trying to get you calmed down last night. You were all over the place… throwing books off the bookcase just to put them back in the exact spot you took them from, mumbling to yourself the entire time and then you lined everything on top of your dresser up in rows of three and spent an hour trying to get the bottles of perfume sitting just right when honestly, it looked the same as when you first put them there. You live alone, but you've got a kitchen completely packed with food. I just…"

His voice trailed off and he rubbed a hand through his hair, sighing he explained, "I just want to understand."

"Do you really?" She replied, finally looking up at him from the doughnut she'd been tearing apart.

"I'm still here, aren't I?" He countered, picking up his own cup and taking a drink as he spoke.

He didn't say it out loud, but Bird felt like she'd been given an ultimatum; open up or he was gone.  
And suddenly the person she'd been wishing would leave on their own was someone she felt like she'd do anything to hold onto. Even if it meant delving into a past she'd long since left behind and had no desire to dredge up, something that she never let herself think about, much less talk to anyone about.

"Thomas and Martha Wayne weren't my biological parents, they adopted me when I was five years old." Bird explained, still picking at the doughnut in her hands to keep from looking at Harvey as she spoke, "I spent the first years of my life in and out of foster homes and orphanages."

Not brave enough to steal a glance at him, she cleared her throat and continued, "I saw this psychologist once who told me that kids can't actually retain memories until around age five, but I remember being in those awful places. I remember the constant hunger pains and being afraid to even get out of bed at night to go to the bathroom in-case my footsteps woke anyone up. I remember getting beaten at one foster home because I was so hungry that I stole a cup of yogurt from the refrigerator… and then waking up the next morning to see they'd put a lock on the fridge and on every single cabinet in the kitchen."

"Oh my god…" Harvey breathed under his breath, as he watched her with a saddened expression. He had no idea what it was she wasn't telling him, but he hadn't been prepared for this.

"Fifteen years later and enough money to know I'll never go hungry again and the thought of not having an overstuffed kitchen still sends me into a panic." She admitted with a dry laugh.

Harvey opened his mouth to tell her that she didn't have to tell him anything else if she didn't want too, that if he'd known how painful it would be for her to reopen those old wounds he'd never have pried in the first place, but before he got the chance she'd started talking again.

"At one of the orphanages i ended up in, theft was a really bad problem. There were so many kids of all ages thrown in there together and I didn't have much… a few bottles of soaps for the days I was allowed to shower and some toys I'd somehow ended up with, some days I even had some apples or little packs of crackers and I don't know, I guess maybe because I didn't have very much that belonged to me I was really possessive over what I did have. I wanted to make sure I could always keep track of by belongings so I started to put what I had in rows of three next to my bed and I'd lie awake half the night just staring at them in the moonlight, memorizing the exact placing of each thing so well, that I'd be able to spot it if someone had turned a bottle just a little to one side."

Pulling in a deep breath that hitched in her throat and almost made her choke on the air, she cleared her throat and excused, "It's so stupid, it was such a long time ago but still to this day I have to line things up in threes and I'm so obsessive over it that I could leave the room, you could move something and as soon as I walked back in I could tell you what was out of place –and then I'd have to put it back in its place or I couldn't rest."

"It's not stupid." Harvey quickly said, shaking his head back and forth, "That's terrible, no child… no one should be treated like that. Scars from trauma like that run deep."

Their eyes met when she looked at him, and he apologized, "I'm sorry… I pushed when I had no idea what I was even pushing for or asking you to dredge up. I am glad that you told me though."

The room quickly fell into silence, but he barely had time to wonder what was on her mind when she asked, "So you're not leaving?"

His brows furrowed as he looked back at her and shook his head to signal he wasn't leaving. Harvey started to ask her why she'd think he'd leave after that, but upon closer examination of the way she was sitting and her mannerisms in that moment he understood this fear of being abandoned must be another way in which her earliest years in life still affected her.  
His heart sank when he thought back to the night she'd showed up at his door rambling about how she wasn't good with feelings and relating to people, he hadn't understood entirely what she meant then –he couldn't understand the desperation in her voice that night when she was barely holding it together, but he did now.

It was clear now that her reluctance to open up to him about anything really had nothing to do with him, it stemmed from her past and he felt guilty for all the times he'd gotten mad at her over the way she acted.

"No, I'm not leaving." There was a confidence to his tone; a strength that she so urgently needed to hear after the moments of quietness that passed since her question.

Leaning closer to her, he gently took her face in his hand, running his thumb tenderly over her cheek as he admitted, "You mean too much to me… I'm not going anywhere."

His words echoed in her head as he pulled her face to his and pressed a passionate kiss to her lips; through his movements she could tell he meant what he said about staying with her, about how much she meant to him.

Her powder coated finger tips left white traces behind on his shirt as she clutched onto the fabric and pulled him closer to her, deciding to live in the moment with him instead of worrying about what the future might hold when he'd inevitably learn more about her.

 **~(The next day)~**

Bird just barely ducked out of the way in time to miss being hit with the bottle of champagne that Fish Mooney threw out of anger when her young employee told her that Oswald was not only still alive but was also working for Salvatore Maroni.

Bird had made a mad dash from her apartment to the club when she'd woke up that morning to a voicemail from Oswald saying he'd went to the police station to intervene when he'd caught word that Jim Gordon was being arrested for his murder and to let her know she needed to get to Fish before anyone else told her.

"No!" Fish shouted, knocking the freshly cleaned glasses off the bar as she screamed, "No, no, no… NO!"

Hearing the ruckus from the office he'd been looking over papers in upstairs, Butch nearly tripped over his own feet trying to run down the stairs to make sure Fish was okay and see what was going on.

"Boss, what's wrong?" Butch asked, fighting for a breath as he grabbed onto the bar to bring himself to a stop.

"Gordon didn't kill Penguin like he was told." Fish hissed, pointing a finger at Butch as she spoke.

"Penguin is still alive!" She yelled out of anger and a deep seeded fear of all his knowledge about her, "And it just gets worse!" She shouted, letting out a frustrated scream into the room as she turned and started to pace back and forth.

"Worse?" Butch asked, wondering how things could get much worse than that.

"He's working for Don Maroni." Bird stated, her eyes darting back to Fish to make sure she didn't need to duck out of the way of anymore flying objects.

"You bring Gordon here, to me." Fish ordered Butch, as she angrily shook her head, "Still breathing, I want to talk to the son of a bitch."

Turning back around she stopped when Bird was in her eyesight and with her brightly polished talon like nails she pointed a finger at her and hissed, "And you-"

"Told you the minute I found out about it, I rushed so fast to get here it's a wonder my shoes even match." Bird defended, her eyes wide as she spoke and in all honesty most of what she said wasn't a lie.

"Go with Butch." She ordered.

"What?" Bird questioned at the exact same time Butch asked, "Boss?"

"You heard me!" Fish exclaimed, tossing her arms up in the air and for the moment feeling like she'd employed the most incompetent people in all of Gotham, "Get her a gun and take her with you."

Butch nodded, turning to head back up the stairs to get the weapons they'd need for the run when Fish called after him, "Take Roy too!"

He knew he was in no place to question what Fish told him and he not only liked Bird, but knew she was skilled enough to hold her own and be helpful on a mission like they were about to be sent on, but Fish liked to keep Bird at the club –she liked to have her nearby and mostly tasked her making sure the bar remained stocked and from time to time he'd get a kick out of watching her break up fights between men twice her size and kick them out of the club.  
He wasn't entirely sure of his boss's motives for having her tag along with him and Roy on the assignment of bringing Detective Gordon in, but he didn't have much time to contemplate it. The more time they wasted the bigger window of time that Jim would have to take his girl and flee town.

Bird remained quiet on drive to the building that Jim's girlfriend lived in, like they say still waters run deep and while she remained physically silent her mind was racing.

Once they reached the building, the trio took a side entrance and found their way to an elevator.

"You alright?" Butch asked, eyeing the young woman as he commented, "Been awfully quiet."

"I'm fine." She asserted, before nodding to the door opposite the stairs and offered, "I'll take the stairs, for all we know Jim might already be here."

Without giving them time to protest or agree she slipped into the doors of the stairwell and broke into a sprint taking the steps at least two at a time until she reached the correct floor and paused at the door just long enough to tuck the handgun into the waistband of her jeans and cover it with her jacket.

It was only seconds after she knocked on the door that Barbara opened it and looked at Bird with a slightly confused expression, immediately recognizing who she was and wondering if this had anything to do with Jim working the case of her parents murders or him saving her life only days before, Barbara offered a smile as she said, "Hi… if you're looking for Jim he already left for work."

"Barbara, we probably only have a minute so I need you to listen to me very carefully."

Bird's eyes darted over to the elevator before she looked back to the blonde and said, "In a second there are going to be two men here with guns looking for Jim, the situation is going to seem really bad, but as long as you don't try anything stupid, you're going to be fine."

The smile fell from Barbara's lips and she stared back at the brunette, feeling like she couldn't have possibly heard her correctly.

"I'm sorry… what?" Barbara stammered out, her ears started to feel like they'd plugged with water and she was suddenly overly aware of her own racing heart.

"You need to trust me." Bird hissed, hearing the elevator ding on the floor they were on. "Trust me and I promise you that both you and Jim will walk away from this."

"I won't let them hurt you." She added, with raised eyebrows she asked, "Understand?"

"I…" Barbara stuttered, not able to process what she'd been told let alone come up with an answer for what she'd been asked.

Hearing the elevator open Bird whispered, "I'm really sorry about this, Barbara."

Before the blonde could ask what for, Bird pulled a gun on her and pushed the barrel against her stomach and the tone in her voice changed to one that left Barbara feeling cold as ice as Bird ordered, "Back, get back inside."

"Oh my god!" Barbara gasped, fearfully backing away from the gun only to become almost paralyzed from terror when she looked back up to see two men were now behind Bird, each of them had a gun of their own pointed at her.

"Sit down." Butch instructed once they were all inside of the apartment with the door shut behind them; he motioned with his gun to the burgundy couch near the large windows.

Barbara backed up until her legs bumped against the couch and sat down, her breath raced in and out of her lungs as she stared back to Bird, hoping for some glimpse of the girl who'd fist showed up at her door appearing to show concern for her. But instead the brunette was too busy inspecting a shiny metallic decorative vase that she'd lifted from its place on the mantle.

"Where's your boyfriend?" Roy asked her, keeping his gun drawn and at the ready.

"He's at work." She stammered out, before adding in desperation, "He's on the police force."

With a booming laugh, Butch commented, "You don't say?"

Almost on cue her cellphone started to buzz on the table in front of her, Bird looked over to see Barbara eyeing it and she threatened, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Putting his gun away, Butch looked to Roy and Bird who still had their guns drawn before he said, "Come on now, put those away. You're scaring the nice lady."

Both did as they were told, and Barbara kept starring at Bird waiting for her to make some kind of move. At the door she'd told her to trust her, to trust her and no one would get hurt, but it seemed like the person she'd talked to then was long gone.

So she sat in place, scared to move a muscle or even risk breathing the wrong way as the trio who'd forced her inside at gun point walked around her apartment.

"Wow!" Butch finally exclaimed after taking in the view from the picturesque large windows, "What a place, huh?"

Roy nodded as he looked around them and Bird had already set her eyes on the liquor cabinet against the far way that seemed to be adorned with the most expensive spirits one could purchase in Gotham.

"A beautiful home, for a beautiful lady." Butch continued, resting his hands on the back of the couch and leaning forward some as he spoke.

"Please tell me what you want." She pleaded, her voice cracking as he fought back tears.

"I guess there's no harm in the truth." Butch shrugged, "See your boyfriend was supposed to kill a certain person for somebody, only he didn't and now that person is real mad."

"Cobblepot." She barely whispered.

"What?" Butch asked.

"He didn't kill Cobblepot." She somehow found the strength to say, though she immediately wished she hadn't when Butch slammed his hand down on the back of the couch and yelled, "There you go!"

Jumping and nearly screaming from the outburst, Barbara looked back over to Bird and started to doubt that anything she'd told her was true –aside from the men showing up with guns part. She wondered how she could just be standing here letting this happen to her.

With a laugh Butch circled the couch until he sat down next to Barbara and said, "You're hip! You are hip, that Jim Gordon is one luck son of a gun. What are you like a hundred pounds… one ten?" Leaning over and breathing in the scent of her hair he hummed, "Mmm, I bet that's your real hair color too."

Bird looked over at him with raised eyebrows as she took a sip from the drink she'd prepared for herself.

Looking more terrified than before, Barbara tried to change the subject by asking, "What are you going to do to Jim?"

"You ever been with a criminal?" Butch asked, and Barbara pinned her eyes shut to try and stop the tears burning at them like acid.

"Come on, Butch." Bird said a laugh, before using his own choice of words against him, "Stop terrorizing the nice lady."

Letting out a laugh he shrugged as he said, "Hey, I'm just saying some ladies find it a turn on."

"Yeah they do." Roy agreed, nodding with a twisted smile as he looked between the women that made both Bird and Barbara feel like they needed to douse their skin in bleach to feel clean.

"Well clearly not that one." Bird nodded to Barbara as she rolled her eyes and stated the obvious, "She's dating a cop after all."

Just then everyone's attention was drawn over to the sound of a gun cock and Jim made his presence known as he entered the room and gruffly said, "You're trespassing, get out."

"Jim!" Barbara gasped, not sure if she should be relieved that he was there was more concerned that now he was in danger too.

"Hey! Speak of the devil, I was just getting to know your lovely lady here." Butch greeted, as he stood up and refastened the button on his suit jacket he'd undone when he sat down.

"Get out." Jim repeated, keeping an eye on Roy who was now pointing a gun back at him.

"Whoa…" Butch breathed, "Slow down, Haas. You're misreading the situation. I'm the shot caller here."

"The situation is your orders are to bring me in alive or I'd be dead already, but I'm happy to kill you right here and now." Jim replied, his voice gruff and Butch didn't appreciate the disrespect he was being shown. It wasn't something he was used to with being Fish Mooney's right hand man, he was nearly always treated with respect –even if it was born out of fear.

"Come on, Jim." Bird sighed, stepping farther into view as she added with a smirk, "I know your home and masculinity are being threatened right now, but don't be such a hard-ass. Do the smart thing and put the gun down."

"What the hell are you even doing here?" He asked her, keeping the gun on Roy as he spoke, "Wasn't it just days ago that I saved your life, remember that?"

"Well... in light of all the recent trauma I've been through, I decided to really throw myself in my work. You know, stay busy and all."

Her words earned a laugh from Butch and a confused and terrified glance from Barbara who was still afraid to leave where she'd been sitting on the couch.

"You know how this plays out. You play nice, take your lumps and no one else get hurts." Butch said, motioning back to Jim's girlfriend as he spoke to get the point across.

"Tell your friend to drop his gun, or I'll blow his brains out."

Butch looked from Jim back to where Roy was standing, before sighing in defeat and nodding for him to just do as he was told.

"Oh my god, Jim!" Barbara gasped, moving to the edge of her seat.

"It's okay, everything is under control." Jim tried to assure her, but his words provided little comfort.

"Okay, have it your way." Butch grumbled, as he stepped closer to Jim, "But now, after we kill you we're gonna kill blondie too… nice and slow-"

Quickly raising his hand with the gun, he hit Butch so hard in the head with the butt of the gun that he immediately fell to his knees. Not wasting any time, he brought his leg up and kicked him square in the forehead, knocking him unconscious.

Jim turned his attention back to Roy, expecting to see him diving for the gun he'd dropped to the floor moments prior but to his surprise, Bird sprang into action and kicked Roy's legs out from underneath him.

He landed on the floor with a pained groan staring up to the high ceilings, but the view was short lived as Bird pulled her gun and fired a single shot in the direct center of his forehead –a quick and effective execution style kill.

She'd never much cared for Roy, he was always lurking around the club looking at her like she was more a piece of meat than a person.

Barbara screamed and Jim stared at her with a shocked expression.

"I told you I'd do what I could from the inside to help you." Bird reminded him of an earlier conversation they'd had, glancing to Barbara she added, "See, I told you that you'd both get to walk away from here."

Barbara frantically looked between the dead man laying in a puddle of blood on her living room floor and back to the girl who'd killed him, her mouth hung open like she wanted to say something, but her tongue was currently unable to form a single syllable.

Still holding her gun at her side, she stepped out of the way of the growing puddle of blood and looked to Jim as she said, "But really, screw walking… you need to run. You both need to run, because you see, we're the B-team here and you lucked out that Fish sent me with them. Things aren't going to turn out so great with the next group Fish or Falcone send after you. Trust me."

He gave a quick nod, which she took as more of a appreciative gesture for her help rather than an agreement to what she was telling him.

"We've gotta go, right now." Jim said, looking to his still terrified and stunned girlfriend who just couldn't seem to pull her eyes away from the dead man on her floor.

"Barbara!" He yelled causing her to jump and gasp with panic filled eyes as she looked at him. Motioning for her to follow him he repeated, "We've gotta go."

Once they were gone, Bird pulled in a deep breath and sat down on the couch where Barbara had been sitting. She'd been able to help Jim, which she felt good about, only now she was left in the wake of the disaster to come up with a believable story of what happened after Butch was knocked out –then they'd both have to face Fish's wrath when they returned to the club empty handed.

* * *

 **A/N - Guys I am so excited! The last chapter got more reviews than I've had since the first chapter. Thank you all so much for brightening my day and making me feel once again like there is still interest in Bird's story. Also happy to see all the Oswald x Bird fans! ^_.^**

 **First I have to thank my bestie; the wonderful Miss E Charlotte and the lovely and kind SusieSamurai for all the support they've shown me. You both are amazing and thank you so much!**

 **Then I also owe so many thank yous to Loopylucymac, Starswim, MzzLightwood, SmellYourScentForMiles, Guest and Love. Fiction. 2016 for the reviews they left on chapter 17, and also to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx for working on getting caught up.**

 **Seriously, I just want you all to know how much it means to me! You're all amazing!**


	19. We're Going to Hell

**XIX**

 _Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing. - Elie Wiesel_

* * *

Leaning forward over the sink in the ladies restroom at Fish's club, Bird flinched as she washed the blood off the side of her forehead where she'd hit herself with the butt of her gun at Barbara's apartment after she and Jim fled.  
Bird had been left to come up with a story about how Jim had somehow bested her and managed to get away before Butch woke up.

She knew the damage had to look bad enough that no one would think she'd done it to herself, but she'd underestimated her own strength and had nearly knocked herself out.

Her face contorted in a pained expression as she gingerly pushed on the swollen bruised skin around where her skin had opened from the impact from the self-inflicted injury. Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she let out a small sigh before turning to leave the restroom.

Downstairs she spotted a couple of the waiters cleaning tables and getting things set for that night when the doors would be opened to the public, but she didn't see Fish or Butch anywhere.

It didn't take her long to find them in one of the rooms set up as an office upstairs though, in fact she heard them before she saw them. Following their voices, she silently crept up to the door and peeked around the door frame where she saw Fish sitting at the desk and Butch in a chair facing her, with his back towards the door.

"Are you saying you don't think she has what it takes?" Fish questioned, leaned back in her chair as she drummed her nails on the desk and stared at her most loyal and trusted employee.

"No, boss." Butch answered, letting out a sigh as he added, "All I'm saying is that people know her face and sending her out on runs might draw attention to things we don't want attention drawn too."

Bird's eyebrows furrowed as she quickly gathered that they had to be talking about her.

"True enough." Fish conceded, leaning back further as she crossed her arms over her chest and gave what he'd said some thought. "I don't know, Butch. Something just doesn't fit right with her and we were dealt a bad hit with Penguin going to work for Maroni. That boy knows things that could get me killed and when it comes down to it, Bird knows more than he does. She knows about Liza, if she breathes one word of that then we're all dead."

"You really think she'd turn rat?" Butch questioned, a look of disbelief on his face. He'd never expected Oswald to rat on them either, but he'd also never trusted him. Bird was a different story; she'd been around the club for years and aside from the way she'd reacted when the word had been given to kill Oswald, she'd been nothing but loyal.

"No, she's too smart for that." Fish quickly said, blowing out a heavy breath. "I've just been giving a lot of thought to Bird lately."

"I don't know." Butch shrugged, "She's quiet at times, but she does good with any job you've given her around here. She's a good looking girl; the customers like her on the nights she's feeling social."

"Exactly." Fish said, a clink noise sounded from the crime bosses nail as she pushed her index finger to the desk when she spoke, "She keeps her head down, does her job and doesn't make a scene. She's so good at blending in that most of the time I don't even notice she's in the room. Doesn't that remind you of Penguin? He did the same thing –stayed to himself and listened to what was going on around him. If Bird's loyalty isn't here, then we're in trouble."

This time Butch didn't have anything to say, he couldn't deny that she had a point. There had been many times in the beginning before they knew Bird very well, that they'd be discussing business matters that very few were privy too and then realize she'd been within ear shot of them. But the longer she'd been working there, the less they paid attention to it. She became one of Fish's favorites and she'd earned a high degree of trust from her boss.

"Maybe Penguin has me paranoid." Fish reasoned, she still saw red every time she thought about her former umbrella boy and the seemingly endless line of betrayals that had followed.

"Sometimes a little paranoia is healthy." Butch countered, especially in the business they were in.

Realizing that his boss's distrust in Bird was stemming from how Oswald had deceived them all, he guessed, "You think we can't trust her because of how close she was with Penguin?"

"I think that right now we can't afford to not toy with the idea. For whatever reason, out of some misguided devotion to him –she turned on me once before." Waving a hand through the air Fish added, "Then again she's not always the most stable person, so I was willing to forgive that, but I'll never forget it."

"I'm not saying we don't have anything to worry about." Butch assured her, "I just don't get the feeling that she's here with underhanded intentions. The way I remember it; Penguin was pretty much infatuated with her. He'd just sit there and stare at her for hours sometimes."  
Shaking his head, Butch added, "He's one creepy little man."

Almost as if she didn't hear what he'd said, Fish cut in, "We need to watch her closely." Pointing a finger at him she stated, "I want you to keep an eye on her."

"Got it, boss." Butch nodded.

"She's always doing just enough to be helpful, but never quite enough that she's putting her neck on the line. We need to start tasking her with more important duties to see where her loyalty lies." There was a less than friendly smile on her lips as Fish commented, "We're a family after all. If one of us goes down; we all go down and Bird isn't going to be the exception."

Hearing the chairs scraping against the floor when they both scooted their seats to stand up, Bird quickly darted down the stairs and back into the bathroom she'd been in before she'd ventured off in search of her boss.

Her breathing rushed in and out as she leaned over the sink, her fingers clinging to the white porcelain as she stared down to the rust tarnished drain. She'd been foolish to believe that Fish couldn't see through her act, it was arrogant to believe she'd be able to skate by on doing the bare minimum and only showing up for her shifts and when she was called in.  
If she wanted to pull the deception off and live to tell the tale then she needed to show more initiative.

She was pulled from her thoughts when there was a knock on the door and Butch called out, "Bird, you still in there?"

"Yeah!" She yelled, back pulling in one last breath before she opened the door and moved her hair to the side to reveal the severity of the wound as she added, "Jim got me worse than I thought."

"Yeah?" Butch asked, looking at the open and dark bruised skin, "At least he didn't get you as good as he got Roy."

Bird nodded, her mind briefly flashing back to when she'd killed Roy to help Jim get away. In all honesty she'd never much cared for Roy and it was easy to drop him and lie about Jim being the one to fire the kill shot.

Stifling a laugh she cocked her head to the side as she added, "Or as bad as he got you."

"What are you talking about?" Butch asked her, a look of confusion on his face.

"You still have the outline of his shoe print on your forehead." She laughed, but seemed to be the only one amused by it as he shot her an unyielding look and said, "Yeah, alright. Come on, we've got work to do."

 **~(Later that day)~**

Bird sat in the driver's seat of a van parked outside the back exit of Fish's club, she raising up in the seat and leaning over towards the middle she checked the wound on her forehead, with a sigh she tried to rake her hair over it and mentally cursed herself for causing the injury in such a noticeable place. At the very least she'd now have to come up with stories about what happened for her younger brother and Harvey.

When her phone rang from her pocket, she pulled it out and saw that it was Harvey calling her. A small smile fell over her lips, funny he'd call her when she was just thinking about him.

Flipping the phone open, she stared at the screen as her finger hovered over the answer button. Blowing out a heavy breath she closed the phone and looked up to see a couple of Fish's henchman passing in front of the van; both of them gave her a questioning look before heading in the door towards the stairs.

Moments later Butch emerged and just before he got into the van with her she sent Harvey a quick text telling him she was busy with work and would call him later.

"Ready to go?" Butch asked as he climbed up into the passenger seat.

"Yeah." She nodded, a small part of her starting to panic when she realized they were going on this run alone instead of someone else coming. Either Fish and/or Butch thought she was capable of being his solo back up, or this really wasn't a job to put a stop to one of Maroni's trucks and he was supposed to kill her.

Turning in her seat to get a better look at him, she noticed he didn't seem nervous at all. She'd been around him so much at the club that she both thought and hoped that if he was tasked with killing her it would at least weigh on his mind beforehand.

Slowly turning his head to face her asked, "What?"

Cracking a smile and hoping it covered her own anxiety she laughed, "Just checking to see if the shoe-print was still on your forehead."

"Shut up and drive." He said, shaking his head with a small laugh of his own as he added, "Dumb son of a bitch should have just came with us –you know, I heard that Zsasz tore up the police station trying to bring him in."

"Really?" She breathed, starting up the van and pulling out onto the street as she thought about what he said and asked, "Wait, trying to bring him in? As in he failed and Jim is still out there?"

"That's right." He nodded, looking into the back of the empty cargo van as he commented, "If you ask me, I'm kinda glad he didn't catch him. Doesn't make us look as bad."

"Right!" Bird exclaimed nodding, though she was happy he didn't catch Jim for several reasons.

Butch eyed her for a few moments, before he thought out loud, "You know, I really didn't take Gordon for the type who'd hit a girl."

Swallowing hard she shrugged and tried to keep her voice steady as she replied, "I also didn't think he'd be nearly impossible to bring in alive either. Would have been much simpler if our orders were to just drop him."

"Got that right." He agreed.

Leaning down some Bird felt for the crank on her door to roll the window down some for some fresh air, it was becoming increasingly hard to breath inside of the van. She still wasn't sure if Butch's orders were truly to inconvenience Maroni or dump her body in Gotham river.

Fish had spent most of the day screaming at one person after the other, nothing had seemed to go her way and knowing that Oswald was out there with enough information to bring her down was making her see a world on fire with rage.

Fish had already had two meetings that day; the first one was with Don Falcone who thought she was completely over reacting when she demanded they kill Oswald and his orders to her was to go to Maroni and ask for him back.  
The meeting with Maroni hadn't gone her way either; she returned to the club yelling about how all Maroni did was tell Penguin to apologize to her for his betrayals.

Not that Bird was surprised, not only did she know Maroni wouldn't take her seriously because he was the type who thought females should be seen and not heard –but he thought Oswald was some secret weapon that could be used to bring The Falcone Crime Family to it's knees.

"So what's our plan?" Bird finally questioned.

"Don't know." Butch shrugged before explaining, "Falcone just said we're to stop any of Maroni's trucks that try to get through the bridge, and take any supplies they're carrying."

A sense of relief flooded over her when she heard the orders came from Falcone and not from Fish; she'd been worried the whole time that Fish might have sent them out for her to meet her fate.

"There's some chains in the back, guess we can physically block the bridge off…" His voice trailed off when they drove past a small group of nuns walking down the sidewalk and suddenly he had an idea that was to good to pass up.  
What better way to stop a truck –even one drove by criminals, than to block the path with nuns?

"Stop here and back up." Butch instructed and Bird followed what he'd told her to do, she'd also spotted the nuns and had a feeling that was the direction their plan had headed in.

Backing up until she was next to where the nuns had come to a stop, she watched as Butch climbed between the two front seats and into the back.

"You know…" She said, watching as he unlocked the doors on the side of the van, "If there really is a hell, we're going there for this."

He shot a smile over his shoulder before throwing open the doors and startling all eight of the nuns, he asked, "Hey sisters, how's it hanging?"

A series of gasps went through the small group and they all looked to one another, trying to figure out what was happening.

"I'm gonna need you to get in the van." Butch said as he stepped out to give them room to pile in, but they all backed away in fear from him.

"Relax." Bird said as she rounded the front of the van with her gun in hand, seeing they were all clutching onto their rosaries, she smirked, "You can keep the rosaries, just get in the van and no one gets hurt."

The group seemed split on what they should do, some of them fearfully took baby steps towards the van with their eyes glued to the gun and the rest backed themselves up against the brick building behind them.

"We don't have all day." Butch added, retrieving his own gun and motioning with it for the nuns to get into the van.

After the time it took to get all them into the van, Bird had to speed towards the bridge so they'd have enough time to set their holy road block up before the time Maroni's truck would be coming through.

Once they'd chained all eight of the nuns to the bridge, they got back into the van and parked a little ways up the street waiting for the shipment to come through and they didn't have to wait long until a large truck came barreling through labeled 'Maroni Moving and Storage'.

Butch and Bird watched as the truck slammed on its break, blaring the horn as if the sisters would be able to get out of his way. For a few seconds they both thought they were going to have a terrible mess on their hands, but luckily the driver managed to stop just a few feet in front of them.

"Go time." Butch said, with a proud smile that his plan had worked like a charm and Bird started the van driving just under the bridge to park in the street blocking the other way so Maroni's men couldn't back up either.

As they exited the van, Butch made a call on his phone to number he'd been given which reached a trailer truck with some of Falcone's men in it waiting nearby to move the supplies.

Bird unchained the nuns and let them go as Falcone's men pulled up and exited their truck. Curious, she peeked in a few of the wooden cargo boxes to see they were packed with disassembled guns.

Returning to Butch's side where he was standing and keeping an eye on Maroni's men, she said, "This shipment has to be worth four million… at least."

Butch's smile grew knowing this would earn them points with Falcone on stopping such a high valued gun shipment of Maroni's.

Looking back to the two guys who'd been in Maroni's truck, Butch said, "Listen, tell your boss that Falcone won't let any of Maroni's trucks over the bridge. Not until he gives up Penguin."

"What was with the nuns?" The shorter of the two asked them.

"Butch here, has a thing for theatrics." Bird smirked, eyeing him from the corner of her eye.

"Alright, now listen." He said, looking between the guys, "You gotta get hurt a little, you want a bullet or a beating?"

"Why we gotta get hurt?" The taller man who'd been driving the truck asked.

"We're sending a message, here." Bird stated, shaking her head at their apparent lack of comprehension on the matter.

"This is a very serious issue." Butch nodded.

"Well, I'll tell him it's serious. No problem." He argued.

Rolling her eyes, Bird pulled her gun and fired a shot into one of each of their kneecaps. Both men dropped to the ground yelling out in agony.

Butch watched them for a moment before turning to Bird and commenting, "Okay, problem solved. Let's head back to the club."

 **~(That night)~**

Bird walked through a downstairs hallway of Wayne Manor while she finished up the last of the sandwich she'd made for herself upon her arrival. She wasn't entirely sure what she was doing there, especially so late at night –her brother would probably already be in bed and if Alfred had finished everything he needed to do for the day then he probably would be too.

Just as she passed in front of a large window something pulled her attention to the side yard outside and she was almost sure she'd spotted Alfred just as he disappeared into the shadowed tree line.

Making her way towards the door, she jogged towards the trees and carefully made her way through the dark grounds in search of Alfred –if for no other reason then simply out of curiosity.

It wasn't long until she could hear his voice and from what she could make out, it sounded like he might be talking to Jim Gordon.

"It's alright, Alfred. It's alright he's a friend." Jim assured him, as he watched Detective Crispus Allen being pinned against the car by Alfred who had managed to subdue him and was holding him at knifepoint.

Bird stifled a laugh at the site as she walked up to them, Jim glanced at her and then back to Alfred as he explained, "I couldn't risk a direct approach, there are people looking for me."

"Sorry about that, mate." Alfred apologized as he extended a hand to Detective Allen.

Looking in Bird's direction Alfred complained, "Why is everyone sneaking about the bloody trees tonight?"

"I was following you." She admitted, with a shrug as she leaned down to get a better look inside of the car where she spotted Detective Montoya in the driver's seat and a pale Jim Gordon sitting in the back.

"In a spot of bother, are we sir?" Alfred questioned as he got a better look at Jim's condition.

With a weak smile he nodded and got out of the car as he told them he was there because he needed to talk to Bruce and it couldn't wait until morning.

Bird watched as the other two detectives helped Jim on their walk across the side yard and into the house. Once the group was all in her late father's office, Bird was surprised to see her brother wasn't sleeping in there that night.

"Is Bruce in his room?" Bird asked surprised.

"Mhmm." Alfred nodded, his arms crossed behind his back in his usual manner of standing as he added, "First night in a long time, but it's no matter. I'll just go and wake him." With those words he gave Jim a look to show he wasn't too happy about whatever problem he'd brought to their doorstep this time.

Once he was gone, Bird looked back to the detectives and remembered back to when they'd came to interview her after she'd thought Oswald had been killed.

"Hello." She greeted, flashing them a smile that didn't feel the least bit warm or friendly to the pair.

"Hello again." Montoya politely greeted back, although she was hoping they wouldn't have to cross paths with Bird again.

Allen nodded to her and Bird could tell by the expression on both their faces that neither of them were thrilled to see her there and she couldn't deny the feeling was entirely mutual.

"In my defense, when I told you both that Jim killed Oswald –I fully believed it was true." She explained.

"It's over." Jim pointed out, "The truth is out."

Noticing him swaying slightly she asked, "Do you need to sit down?"

"No." He said, doing his best to smile through the pain he was in from the three bullets he'd been hit with earlier that day at the station. He'd came there because he needed to make amends with Bruce and he wasn't going to do that sitting down.

It was just moments later that Alfred returned to the room with a pajama and robe clad Bruce at his heels.

"Bruce, how are you?" Jim greeted, forcing a smile as he hobbled forward a few steps.

Immediately picking up on the detectives condition and seeing some blood on his shirt that had soaked through one of the bandages he asked, "Are you okay?"

"I've been better." Jim admitted, before stepping to the side and motioning to the other two detectives in the room as he introduced them, "Bruce, this is Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen. They're detectives with the Major Crimes Unit."

"Pleased to meet you." Bruce said, though his voice was wavering from the feeling of dread that seemed be pouring off the walls of the room.

"Bruce, I promised I would find your parent's killer and now I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep that promise." Jim admitted, knowing that a straightforward answer was the best approach with him and he deserved nothing less than the truth. "It's a long story, but I'm kind of in a tight spot. I've upset some powerful people."

"Stop treating me like a child!" He argued, his voice raising both from anger and fear at what he was going to be told next, "Explain." He demanded.

"Bruce you are a child, you don't need to know-" Jim started to argue, but Bruce wasn't going to accept that answer. In frustration he yelled out, "You expect to die, I'd like to know why!"

Stepping forward, Bird rested her hands on her little bother's shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze to let him know she was there. Pulling in a deep breath, he tried to calm himself and steady his voice as he added, "Is it connected to my parents murder?"

"Yes, I think it's all connected… somehow." Jim pulled in a ragged breath as he faced the thirteen year old and said, "Bruce, I will do my best to work this thing out; but if I don't, Montoya and Allen here are going to take over your parents case. I've told them everything I know, you can trust them one-hundred percent."

"One-hundred percent." Allen repeated.

"They're good detectives." Jim vouched for the pair, "If anyone can find the truth, it's them."

"Thank you." Bruce choked out, staying strong despite the impossible circumstances of the situation and having to face the thought of losing one of the few people he had left in the world who cared about him.

"So, what can we do to help you now?" Alfred asked.

"Nothing. From here on in I have to go it alone." He replied, looking to Bird as he added, "I don't want anyone else caught up in this." She'd done more to help him than he'd ever expected out of her and because of that he was able to get Barbara safely out of Gotham. He'd had his fair share of doubts when it came to her personal code of ethics, but he'd came to believe that deep down she was a good person who'd lost her way.

"I have to go." He announced.

"Jim, you can hardly walk." Bird pointed out, hating how much it bothered her to see him like that. Especially after she'd warned him several times to just get out of Gotham.

"I'll be fine." He tried to assure everyone.

Taking in a deep breath, Jim extended a hand to Bruce as one final goodbye, but to his surprise Bruce rushed forward and hugged him.

Bird took a couple steps backwards to stand by Alfred as tears stung her eyes from the sight in front of her, her brother had already lost so much in his short life and it killed her inside to see him like that and know that he might just lose someone else tomorrow.

Jim swallowed hard as he returned the embrace and felt like he was drowning in guilt from all the times he'd let Bruce down and this time could quite possibly be worse than all the others. He hoped he'd live to see another sunset, but with what he was planning for tomorrow it didn't seem likely.

After Jim and the other detectives left, Bruce stood in silence staring into the flames of the fireplace while Alfred and Bird exchanged looks behind his back.

"Alright there, Master Bruce?" Alfred questioned.

"It's not fair." He replied, his voice sounded weak now that he was alone with his family.

"Life's not fair though, is it?" Alfred replied, but his voice was soft and laced with understanding as he spoke.

Turning around to face them, the tears in his eyes were clearly visible as he said, "There's no justice. Good people are dying every single day and there is no justice, the criminals in this city are thriving and when someone tries to do the right thing…"

His voice trailed off, and he cleared his throat to try and keep from crying. "Good night." He somberly said, as he crossed his arms over his chest and scurried from the room before he wasn't able to control his emotions any longer.

Alfred stared at the doorway that Bruce had left through moments before for quite sometime before he turned his head to look at Bird. There was a look of determination on her face that concerned him, he knew very well of the company she chose to keep and he hadn't missed the look Detective Gordon had given her when he said he didn't want anyone else getting involved.

He'd gathered in that moment that she must have done something along the way to try and help him, but now Jim seemed sure that his days were numbered and despite how much Bird pretended not to care about much in the world –he knew how she could be when it came to her brother.  
And while it hurt him to see Bruce hurting from the idea of Jim dying, Alfred knew he, himself, couldn't do anything to try and change that outcome. However; it was logical to assume that Bird might be able to pull some strings from where she was standing –but in situations this dire, he feared her interfering might drastically lessen her chances of survival.

"Lady Wayne?" Alfred questioned, his voice barely over a whisper.

Turning, she looked at him and waited for him to go on.

"Not planning to do anything reckless are we?" He asked, before giving her a knowing look and adding, "Master Bruce might find it hard to accept Detective Gordon's loss, but I shudder to think how he'd fare if he lost you."

With a soft smile, that did nothing to ease his nerves she said, "I'm going to go check on Bruce before I go home. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a very long day."

 **~()~**

With a sigh at finding Bird's apartment was empty Oswald sat down on her couch and looked around the small but cozy living room.

His nose wrinkled as he looked around with thoughts of how even the air in his best friend's apartment had changed. It was a change he didn't much care for, along with how she never seemed to be home anymore. He knew she'd been trying to spend time around her younger brother, but first and foremost he blamed Harvey Dent for keeping her away.

Leaning forward he moved the decorative bowl of shiny marbles to the floor, along with the three remotes she'd had neatly lined up on the coffee table, before removing the blanket she'd used as a makeshift table cloth to reveal the collage he'd taped to her table was still there.

Letting out the breath he'd been holding, he trailed his fingers over the display of what, to anyone else, would look like madness. Only to him it was a blue print of his climb to the top of organized crime. It was crazy, he thought, how much had already changed since the night he'd taped that to her coffee table. Perhaps, even crazier was how much still needed to change and in many ways he felt like he was running out of time.

Surprisingly enough he handled change well, it was one of his finer qualities, he thought. His ability to quickly adapt to new situations was one of the main reasons he'd already gotten so far in life.

Only now it was becoming increasingly clear that he only favored any sort of transformation when it directly benefited him and Bird's relationship with Harvey Dent didn't benefit him in the slightest.

It didn't seem logical that he could hate someone he'd never actually met that much. In many ways he held a deeper hatred for the assistant district attorney than he held for all of the bullies in his life put together.

Somehow feeling the shift in his friendship with Bird was far more painful than anything he'd been through before, and he'd known more than his fair share of pain; even nearly been killed several times.

But she was his. His Bird, and for going on five years she'd been his only friend, the closest person to him and he'd grown quite fond of both the feeling of it being them against the world and that outside of his mother and her brother, all they truly had was one another.

His stomach turned and there was a bitterness nipping at the back of his tongue with the more he thought about it. Oswald's eyes almost seemed to glaze over with the whirlwind of emotions swirling around inside of him, so much was happening, so much all at once and for someone who'd prided themselves on their powers of adaptation he now found himself struggling to even be in her apartment now.

 **~(Flashback)~**

When the lock clicked open, Oswald smiled to himself before tucking away his lock pick kit and testing the doorknob of the apartment door.

When it easily turned in his hand, he slowly pushed the door open and looked into Bird's dark living room.

Once he was inside and shut the door behind him, he looked back around already feeling drained from the unusually warm Gotham summer night. The fact the air conditioning wasn't working in his best friend's apartment didn't help matters at all.

Pulling in a breath, he straightened his suit out and looked around the small space. It had been nearly three months since Bird had moved into her apartment and with each passing day he was finding it harder and harder to stay away from her.

Of course, tonight his excuse for being there was to check on her. It had been nearly three days since anyone had seen her around Fish's club. He thought to himself that Bird might very well be their boss's only employee who could get away with disappearing from her job for days on end.

Anyone else would have already been fired or eliminated, depending on what sort of information they'd been privy to during their employment. But Fish had a soft spot when it came to Bird, it seemed the underboss had chosen the younger woman as her favorite and for that she got by with things that others would be killed for.

It was perfect, Oswald thought to himself, absolutely perfect how Fish cared so much for Bird. It would make it easier in the end to over throw her. Though it might be years down the road, for now he just needed to bide his time and keep his head down around work. Gather up as much information as possible and wait for the perfect moment to make his move.

His footsteps were almost silent against the freshly redone hardwood floor as he crossed between the couch and coffee table on his way to her cracked bedroom door.

Leaning against the door frame he pushed the door open further with a single finger to reveal Bird was sound asleep on her bed.

In the moonlight and glow of the city streetlights pouring in through her open window, he could easily see around the room as he stepped further inside.

Being as quiet as possible he advanced forward to the foot of her bed and watched her even breathing as she lay on her side with the blankets kicked to the other side of her bed. Even with the windows open the room was uncomfortably warm and humid.

Finally he managed to move away from her sleeping form and found his way over to her dresser. His eyes scanned over the various lotions, perfumes and skin care products all lined up in rows of three.

It had taken Bird a little while to get settled into her apartment, but once she'd gotten everything set up it had appeared to him that nothing was ever moved again. Picking up the bottle of her favorite perfume he held it up towards the windows and made a mental note that the liquid was a bit lower than the last time he'd inspected her belongings.

Raising the bottle to his nose he took a deep breath and let the now familiar and favored scent completely fill his airways and take up residence in his lungs. Almost immediately his eyes popped back open and he looked over his shoulder to see she was still sleeping soundly and he quickly tried to return the bottle to its correct placing.

Oswald shook his head at himself and he fought against the newly formed urges of opening up all her drawers to go through her clothes again. This sort of thing wasn't normal, on some level he was aware of that, but another part of him had developed an insatiable need to be near her at all times and that had extended into a deep feeling of need to even touch everything she owned.

The last time he'd gotten into her apartment when she wasn't there, he'd opened up her closet out of curiosity and before he'd even fully became aware of what had happened, he'd completely lost track of time and gone through every single drawer and cabinet in her apartment and had pocketed several items to keep close that reminded him of her.

Glancing back to Bird, he switched the light on and walked into her bathroom, where he barely paused for a moment to catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror before opening up the medicine cabinet and surveying the variety of prescription bottles. His eyes briefly scanned the labels before accepting they seemed to be the same as before.

Making his way over to her bathtub and shower, he swooped her purple bath pouf up from the metal hook it always hung on. He took his time feeling the rough texture against his fingers and the palms of his hands as his mind inadvertently drifted to thoughts of how he was holding something that had touched all over her body.

His mouth ran dry and his airways felt like they'd swollen and closed off as he fought against himself to push those thoughts out of his head.

Still finding it hard to breath, he went to return the pouf to its rightful place in Bird's shower, but couldn't bring himself to do so. For some reason that even defied his own thoughts and logic, he was far too attached to it now and he brought it up to his nose to breath in the traces of scent left behind from her usual body wash before he tucked it away in his pocket to bring back home with him.

Shutting the light off in the room, he started to try and leave her bedroom to get out of there before she woke up and caught him stealing things from her. It would be nearly impossible to talk his way out of that one, especially when she saw he was trying to walk off with her bath pouf. What kind of explanation could he possibly come up with for that? He didn't even truly have an answer for himself.

Hearing her make a noise, he stopped dead in his tracks, his shoulders up and posture stiffened as he silently hoped and prayed she hadn't woken up.

Several moments had passed before he finally got the courage to look back over his shoulder and see she'd only flipped over onto her back still sleeping sound with no idea he was creeping around her apartment in the middle of the night. The idea nearly made him chuckle out loud and he placed a hand over his mouth to keep the inappropriate laugh inside.

Walking over to the edge of the bed, he picked up a bottle of sleeping pills from the bed side table and noted how there seemed to be a large number missing when the date on the bottle was just for barely over a week ago. Setting the prescription bottle down, his eyes went to the uncorked, half empty bottle of wine next to her decorative lamp and he immediately recognized the label as one of the more popular brands Fish enjoyed and kept the club stocked with.

Picking the bottle up he brought it took his lips and took a drink, making a face as the red liquid hit his tongue. It was much too sweet for his taste, but as he thought of how that very bottle had touched Bird's lips not long ago, he couldn't stop himself from taking another drink.

Carefully he sat on the edge of the bed and stared down to her sleeping face, though he couldn't say her expression was peaceful. The few times he'd gotten in to her apartment and watched her over the last few months, he'd noticed she appeared tormented even in her sleep state.

Reaching out he ever so gently brushed some of her hair out of her face, then barely grazed his fingertips down the side of her face and neck, before sliding them over the strap of her sleeping shirt and running his touch down the length of her arm until his hand landed on hers and with another glance at her face, he turned her hand over and laced his fingers with hers. Judging the amount of sleeping pills and alcohol she'd been consuming he was growing confident that it would take a great deal more to wake her up, so for how he could just enjoy sitting there and watching her a little longer.

As his eyes traced over her features in the moonlight he tried to figure out exactly what had changed between them and pinpoint the precise moment that it had happened.

Since the day they met he'd felt drawn to her in a way he'd never experienced before, but it felt different now. Especially since she'd turned eighteen and gotten her own apartment, at first he thought maybe since they'd now been able to spend even more time together with her living outside of Wayne Manor that they'd grown closer. In some ways, that was probably the truth.

But the way in which he thought of her had changed drastically in what felt like an overnight suddenness. One minute she was his very best and truest friend, then the next minute it felt like she was the gravitational pull to all of his thoughts. The center of everything and no matter how hard he tried to shake the new thoughts about Bird, he just couldn't.

At times it had left him wondering about his own sanity. The way thoughts of her creeped into his mind at all times, constantly invading his waking thoughts and even haunting him in his dreams and since he'd also started working for Fish Mooney he was around Bird even more of the time, but somehow it still didn't seem like enough. It never felt like it was enough.

He'd became entirely convinced that even if they spent every single second together that still wouldn't be enough to keep his longing at bay.

Though the last few days had nearly felt like hell on earth, ever since Bird had –had a falling out with Fish and stopped showing up to work.

Their boss had grown tired of Bird not dressing up when she'd be working in the club at night. Her comfortable and casual style had grown unacceptable to Fish, so much so that she'd bought Bird a dress to change into at the club and it had resulted in a fight between them when Bird absolutely refused to put the dress on.

He'd been listening in on the fight from outside of Fish's office, and had thought that Bird was just being her usual stubborn self and arguing for arguments sake. That was until she'd yelled at Fish that the side cut out design on the dress would show the scars from when she'd been shot and left for dead, and then dramatically exclaimed that if the patrons saw her scars they'd leave and in the end the entire thing would have been counterproductive.

Then Bird had stormed off so fast she hadn't even noticed Oswald out in the hallway, and no one had heard from her since.

As he watched her for several more moments, he thought it sounded absolutely crazy. Bird was quite possibly the closest thing to perfect he'd ever seen and the idea that some marks on her skin could change that didn't even seem to be in the realm of possibility.

Leaning forward to get a better look at her face and make sure she wasn't about to wake up, his hands trembled slightly as he carefully slid the soft, warn fabric of her sleeping shirt up far enough that he could clearly see both bullet wounds.

Gently he traced the outline of the raised scars with his fingers and thought to himself that seeing them didn't cause him to see her in any different light. They were only marks on her flesh, they were a part of her and Oswald was still sure she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever laid his eyes on.

As he continued to graze his touch over the exposed pale skin on her stomach, his eyes and thoughts grew darker. While the scars changed nothing for the way he felt about her, knowing the pain and suffering she'd gone through was something else entirely.

The only peace he felt over that was knowing that the man who'd attacked Bird years before was dead and gone, where he couldn't ever hurt her again.  
He'd been in prison awaiting trial for his crimes when the guards had looked the other way while he'd been viciously and painfully slaughtered.

For something like that to have gone down, Oswald knew clearances and orders had to have been given from high up on the ladder. Someone with much higher pull than Fish Mooney had.  
Though he didn't dwell on it much and would gladly shake the hand of the person who'd set the hit up. It was the most violent death ever recorded within the walls of the jail.  
Oswald only wished that it would be possible for the monster to be killed a hundred times over in the most painful ways he could think of.

When Bird adjusted slightly in her sleep, Oswald slowly rose to his feet and looked back down at her as she squirmed slightly and the look on her face twisted up as if she were being haunted by some horror playing in her mind. As he gave it a little thought, he considered that might be exactly what was happening.

Sometimes he even found himself forgetting the hell she'd gone through. She acted tough and so strong that most days even he, himself, would buy the act at face value.

In truth she was one of the strongest people he'd ever met, but it was moments like this when he'd watch her sleeping where she seemed so entirely vulnerable that he was reminded of how birds are such fragile creatures with delicate feathers and hollow bones –and at times _his Bird_ was no exception.

 **~(End of flashback)~**

* * *

 **A/N- Guys, I am so sorry it's been a while since my last update. I have been having internet problems again and for now they seem to be mostly resolved. So hopefully that means I'll be back on for steady updates again! ^_.^  
**

 **I owe all of you such a huge thank you for sticking with me! And I especially owe so much appreciation towards MzzLightwood, SmellYourScentForMiles, SusieSamurai, Miss E Charlotte, Love. Fiction. 2016, Guest, mercenary2. 0, Guest, Uri, Saskia D. Fox, Guest and DominaDeSerpensDorcha for reviewing the last chapter! It means so much to me and I sincerely hope you all liked this chapter as well.**

 **xx**


	20. Nothing to Lose

**XX**

 _I am not young enough to know everything.- Oscar Wilde_

* * *

Pulling in a deep breath of the chilly air pouring in through her open window, Bird reached forward and shut the radio in her car off when she slowed down to turn into the driveway of the Falcone Mansion.

Immediately she had to come to a stop due to a car parked in the driveway just in front of the gate with several armed men blocking the way.

One of the men carrying an assault rifle walked over to her window and leaned down to look inside of her car through her open window.

"Morning." Bird greeted with a tight lipped smile, "I'm here to see Mr. Falcone."

To her surprise the guy nodded, "Sure thing, pull on through."

With a stunned expression she watched as he motioned to a few of the other men and they stepped to the side as one triggered for the gate to open and slowly she drove though. At the most she'd expected them to phone inside and see if he'd be willing to meet with her, she certainly didn't expect to be ushered right on through.

Her heart started to race in her chest as she pulled to a stop in front of the house after being signaled to by another of his armed guards. It felt too easy, like she was possibly walking into a baited trap. As much as she wanted to help Jim, her survival instinct was on red alert and she was starting to rethink her choice, but she was too far in to turn back now.

The guard opened her door with a polite greeting and walked her to the front door of the house where she was met by another of Falcone's men who offered her a polite smile as he asked, "Do you have any weapons on you?"

"Oh!" She exclaimed feeling her cheeks darken some as she realized she'd brought weapons into the Don's house. "I meant to leave them in my car." She defended, as she pulled the handgun from her jeans waist band and a switchblade knife from her pocket and handed them over.

Passing both items off to another man, the one who'd questioned her asked, "Anything else?"

"No." She answered, but she could tell by the look on his face that this wasn't a situation where they were going to simply take her word on it –especially since she'd showed up armed. Normally she'd have been more on her game than that, but she'd been up half the night rehearsing what she'd say if granted the chance to speak to Falcone.

Understanding what came next she widened her stance some and spread her arms out the side and waited for the man to physically check her over for weapons.

"It's just a precaution." He assured her, and she nodded in a silent response as she stared up towards the vaulted ceiling and tried to ignore the invading feeling of a strangers hands patting all over her body.

Once he was satisfied that she wasn't concealing any other weapons, he stepped back and said, "If you'll follow me to the kitchen Don Falcone will see you shortly."

"Thank you." She replied, letting out a relieved breath as she followed him through the extravagant downstairs of the large house.

As she stepped through the doorway into the large kitchen; the first thing she noticed was the aroma of apple cinnamon muffins baking in the oven and the second thing she noticed was a scared Barbara Kean sitting in one of the few chairs surrounding the island in the middle of the room.

The blonde looked over to her with watery eyes, before staring back down to her hands that lay bound at the wrists in her lap. She'd felt like such an idiot; coming to the house of the biggest crime boss in Gotham City to plead for him to stop coming after Jim.  
It felt like a good idea the entire bus ride back to the city, but she'd now been sitting in the house for what felt like an eternity with quite possibly the scariest man she'd ever met staring her down.

Bird glanced over to where Victor Zsasz was standing, with his attention now focused on her as he silently watched her like a predator focusing in on their prey.

Blowing out a breath, she looked away from him and back to Barbara as she started to wonder what part of when she told both her and Jim to leave Gotham, hadn't been clear enough for them to understand.

Barbara looked back to Bird and her mind flashed back to just the day before in her apartment when she'd helped bring down one of the men who was there to take Jim and because of that they'd both made it out of the apartment. She wasn't sure what she was doing there now, but she secretly hoped there might be some way she could help them again.

Hearing the sound of heels clicking on the tile floor, Bird looked up to see Liza entering the room. She came to a stop when she spotted Bird, but quickly looked away and tried to hide her look of surprise as she silently walked over and picked the oven mitts up from the counter and slid them on before opening the oven and inspecting the tray of muffins.

She'd never been much of a cook or a baker before but Falcone had given her some recipes he wanted her to try out, and the best she could tell the muffins seemed to be done.

As she stood up she noticed Zsasz was turned in her direction, leaning over the tray some he commented, "Those muffins smell good."

"None for you." She flatly stated, as she walked out to the side to avoid having to walk right by him she muttered under her breath, "Creep."

As she walked behind where Barbara was sitting she nodded to her and Bird as she announced, "They can have one if they want."

"No, thank you." Barbara spoke in a dry tone, she was quite possibly minutes away from dying and the last thing on her mind was food.

Bird shook her head back and forth, as she tried to fill her time by looking around the room. Her eyes scanned over the three tier metal fruit basket with different color grapes on each level, and two bowls of oranges also on display. She'd never quite understood why people felt the need to display bowls of fruit in their kitchen –then again she considered that maybe she didn't see the point in it because she never had enough room in her kitchen for such a display.

Feeling like she was being watched again, her gaze drifted up to where Victor was watching her again. With the same silent, uncomfortably intense stare he seemed to always use; one that could unnerve just about anyone within a matter of seconds.

Resting her elbows on the counter, Bird unyieldingly stared back at him even though he had succeeded in making her uncomfortable moments after she'd entered the room. She'd only crossed paths with him a few times before and every time she did he'd always watch her in the same manner.

Barbara raised her head to look around again and saw the staring contest that was taking place. Her eyes widened as she looked between them, noting that they both looked like they could tear the other one apart at any minute. She shifted in her seat and for the first time noticed how dry her mouth felt, her eyes drifted over to where Liza was removing the muffins from the baking tin onto a decorative plate and suddenly wished she'd been offered a glass of water instead of a muffin.

As she turned her head back she saw that Bird and Victor were still in the exact same spot staring one another down.

Feeling another set of eyes on her, Bird finally looked away from his stare and to Barbara who was staring at her with wide eyes.

"Unsettling, isn't it?" Bird said out loud, "The way he just stares like that. You can never figure out if he's undressing you with his eyes or imaging what it would be like to fillet the flesh from your bones."

Barbara's level of fear intensified by at least a thousand percent and she shifted in her seat with a small whimpering like noise.

"Bird." He greeted, with a smile that sent a chill down her spine, though she didn't show her level of discomfort when she smirked and returned the acknowledgement, "Victor."

It wasn't much later that the door opened and one of Falcone's men nodded for Bird to follow him. As she started to follow him she heard Liza call out, "Hey!"

Turning around she saw her rushing towards her as she said, "Don't forget your muffin."

"Thanks…" Bird replied, taking it from her and spotting some writing on the napkin that she'd handed it to her with.  
Doing another quick check of the room on her exit, she saw Victor raise his hand and waved to her with the same unnerving smile he'd given her moments before.

She held her breath until she was safely out of sight from him and into the hallway with the guard who'd came to retrieve her. Following a few short steps behind him, she moved the muffin off the napkin to see an address written in Liza's handwriting with a day and a time for them to meet there. Doing a quick visual check of her surroundings, she dropped the muffin into the base of the houseplant as they turned onto a hallway and tucked the napkin into her pocket, before wiping the crumbs off her hands onto the sides of her jeans.

Opening a door, the man motioned for her to go inside where she saw Falcone sitting on a leather couch looking over the morning paper as he finished up the last of his piece of toast.

"Bird." He greeted, pausing to take a drink of coffee before he stood and said, "It's nice to see you again."

"You as well." She replied, nodding with respect before her attention was drawn behind her to the sound of the door being closed behind her.

"Please, have a seat." He said motioning to one of the matching chairs facing the couch he'd been sitting on.

Silently, she crossed the room and sat down at the same time he did. He watched her for a moment, before he folded the paper he'd been reading and laid it down next to him to give her his undivided attention.

When she didn't say anything, he raised his eyebrows as he asked, "What brings you here so early this morning?"

Letting out a breath, she shook her head, "I'm sorry, sir. I spent all last night planning what I needed to say, but I honestly didn't expect to get past the guards at the gate. I supposed I'm a bit shell-shocked."

"My men have a list of preapproved visitors that they're to send on through." He explained, catching her even more off guard when his words came with the realization that for whatever reason she'd ended up on such an elite list of names.

"Thank you." She graciously said, before pulling in a breath and admitting, "I guess I just didn't think I'd ever be in this position."

"What position would that be?" He questioned.

"Asking a favor of the Don." She admitted, raising her head and making eye contact as she spoke.

"A favor?" He questioned, seeming a little surprised himself. "Are you in trouble, my dear?"

With a small laugh she admitted, "I always seem to be getting myself in trouble, but no… this favor is more so for a friend of mine."

When he nodded for her to continue with her explanation she pulled in a deep breath, "I know this is probably a long shot, but I've come here to ask you to spare Detective Gordon's life."

He remained silent and his expression gave her no hints as to whether she was simply wasting her breath or actually had a shot at saving him.

"I'm aware that Detective Gordon has…" Her voice trailed off and she rubbed her sweaty palms on her jeans and knew the direct and honest approach was the best way for her to handle a talk with him, she made eye contact as she continued, "Quite frankly, Jim Gordon has been a pain in the ass since he showed up in Gotham, I am fully aware of that. But the truth is, he has saved my life more than once and my little brother has grown very attached to him. Don Falcone, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least ask you to overlook his trespasses against you."

"Well spoken." He commented, remaining stoic in both his tone and expression.

"Thanks." She breathed, "I had a speech all worked out that I rehearsed a few times in the mirror with several more reasons why Jim's life should be spared, but it seems I can't remember a word of it."

Her honesty earned a small smile from the crime boss as he looked her over and pointed out, "You seem nervous."

"I don't like being in this seat." Bird answered, tucking her long dark, brunette waves behind her ears as she spoke, "I don't like asking for help and I like owing favors to people even less."

"Yet, here you sit." Falcone said, motioning to her with a hand.

"I'm not sure what he's planning, but last night Jim came to Wayne Manor and said his goodbyes. He seems to understand he's living on borrowed time and I think he might try to make a move against you… I know you're probably the most untouchable man in all of Gotham, and its nothing for you to be concerned about, but I know if he tries to pull something that by all rites he'd have to die and I'm here trying to prevent it."

Almost as if he didn't even hear what she'd said, Falcone asked, "From what I understand you had a hand to stopping Maroni's shipment of guns at the bridge, yesterday?"

Bird nodded in agreement and he seemed satisfied with the answer as he said, "Excellent work, there was over five million worth of product intercepted. I'm pleased to see you being handed bigger tasks from Fish. The way I understand it you mainly worked in her club before?"

Again a silent nod was the only answer she gave and he smiled, "I told you before that I saw a great potential in you, it's nice to see other people are recognizing that as well."

"Thank you, sir." Bird returned the smile, and remembered back to her last conversation with the Don when he'd told her that he was aware of her knowing Oswald had been alive the whole time. "But to be fair, now that she knows Oswald is alive, I think Fish is testing me to see where my loyalty lies."

Leaning back into the plush leather of the couch, he watched her for a few moments before he said in an approving tone, "I both admire and appreciate how honest you've been in our conversations. Trust and honesty is something that goes a long way with me."

More silence passed and she grew more uncomfortable not knowing what was going to happen next, he seemed to be really giving some thought to the things she'd told him –though Bird judged from the look on his face that there might be rejection coming.

"It's only reasonable that I show you the same respect." Falcone said, adjusting in his seat some, "I think it would be smart to kill Gordon than to leave him alive. He doesn't seem to know his place and a man who believes he's living on a moral high ground can be more dangerous than you'd think."

"I'll take what you've said into consideration. After all, while we're discussing favors… I don't believe I ever got the chance to thank you after your press conference with the mayor over the Arkham compromise." Waving a hand in front of him he clarified, "I'm not saying I owe you a favor, but you should know I appreciate what I asked of you couldn't have been easy and you handled the situation beautifully."

Looking around the early morning sunlit room, he confided, "I do think letting him live is a mistake."

Bird's eyes dropped to the floor wondering if that was his answer after thinking the situation over, but she didn't have time to dwell on the thoughts for long when the large doors leading outside to the landscaped side yard abruptly opened and Jim walked in with Mayor James, who'd he had handcuffed on the drive over. Once he'd fully entered the room, Bird noticed the semi-automatic shotgun he was carrying with him.

Jim eyed her for a moment before letting go of the mayor and holding on his gun as he accounted, "Carmine Falcone, you're under arrest."

"Oh my god…" Bird breathed, rubbing her forehead in disbelief as they watched Bullock march a few of Falcone's handcuffed guards into the room. She had expected Jim to do something foolish, but this was beyond anything she'd imagined.

Cocking the rifle in his hands, Bullock ordered them, "Lie down over there, stay quiet."

"What on earth are you thinking?" Falcone asked the detectives and Bird moved from where she'd been sitting to stand next to the crime boss.

"We're thinking we'll take you and the mayor to jail and charge you with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice." Jim confidently explained.

"Try to take me in and you won't make it to the end of the street." Falcone threatened.

"That's exactly what I said!" Mayor James stammered out.

"This is a lawful arrest, if you resist you will be shot." Jim argued, eyeing both Falcone and the mayor as he spoke.

"It's asinine is what it is." Bird gruffly said, her voice raised and eyes narrowed in anger. She'd came there to plead for his life and now with his showing up like this, she was sure she seemed like the biggest fool on earth and the crime boss would never listen to her again.

Nodding towards the doors he'd came in through Jim said, "Bird, you should go, now." He paused for a moment before adding, "If you stay then I'll have to bring you in too."

"I'm not going anywhere." She argued, knowing it would be viewed as a betrayal to the crime boss if she fled at that point. Whether the situation played out with gun fire or a white flag, she was in it till the end.

Looking to Jim, Falcone said, "Oh, I see. We all die together in a blaze of glory, is that it?"

"If that's how it works out, that's fine with me." Jim said, glancing over his shoulder to his partner as he asked, "How about you Harvey?"

"Fine by me." He replied, keeping his sights set on Falcone.

"Oh god." Mayor James whimpered and Bird rolled her eyes thinking he had to have been the most cowardly man she'd ever met.

"I envy you boys, having nothing to lose must be liberating; must feel pretty good." Don Falcone reasoned.

"Yes, it does." Jim nodded.

"Suppose you did have something to lose, what would you do then? Suppose, for instance I had a knife to Barbara Kean's throat… right now. Would you still be so brave?"

"You don't." Jim argued.

"Pretty sure he just said that he does." Bird commented, trying to tell Jim with her eyes that the crime boss wasn't bluffing, but he wasn't paying attention to her.

Looking to Falcone he accused, "You're a liar."

"I have many faults, but I am not a liar." Falcone argued in an earnest tone, "Victor Zsasz has Barbara."

"You're lying, she's far away." Jim said, though his tone was losing confidence.

"She came back, came right to me to plead for your life. You have a good woman there, she loves you very much; too much."

"Prove it." Jim ordered, his jaw tensing in anger, "Prove you have her."

"I could, but I won't. I want you to believe me."

Now Jim looked to Bird for some signal of whether he was telling the truth or not, but she knew better that to give anything away and stood like a stone.

"Don't look at her, I'm the one talking. I'm the one telling you that your girlfriend's life is on the line." Falcone said, drawing the attention of the room back to him.

"He's lying, Jim. It's obvious." Harvey called out.

"Am I?" Falcone asked, "If you don't believe me, then go ahead and try to bring me in. You'll be dead so you won't know what happens to Barbara, but it won't be pretty."

"Lying!" Harvey argued, if for no other reason than for arguments sake.

"On my mother's grave." Falcone promised, holding his right hand up as he spoke, "Drop your gun and Barbara won't be harmed in any way."

A few tense moments passed before Jim surrendered and lowered his gun, he still wasn't sure if he believed him –but he wasn't willing to take the chance if there was an ounce of truth to what he was being told.

To Bird's surprise instead of Falcone calling for any of his men to aid in the situation, he nodded to her and she immediately understood. Crossing the room, she took the guns from both Jim and Bullock before returning to the crime boss's side. Motioning with the shotgun she instructed, "Sit down."

Not having a choice both detectives sat down on the couch and watched as Falcone called for some of his men, who immediately stormed into the room looking a little embarrassed that they'd had no idea their boss had been held at gun point. Bird stayed at Falcone's side while his helpers unfastened the handcuffs on his other guards and freed the mayor as well.

"This is embarrassing." Bullock complained, eyeing his partner as he sighed, "He straight up bluffed you into folding, we could have gone out like heroes… now we're fish food."

The door to the room opened and Victor pushed Barbara into the room, who still had her wrists bound. Upon seeing that Harvey conceded, "Okay, so it wasn't a bluff."

"I'm sorry if she was mistreated." Falcone spoke when he saw Jim jump to his feet when he saw his terrified girlfriend, "We needed to be sure she had nothing useful to tell us. Untie her Victor."

Once she was freed from her restraints, she rushed to Jim's side and apologized for doing the exact opposite of what she'd promised him the day before when she got on a bus to leave the city. "It's okay." He softly said back, he wasn't angry with her but he also didn't know if they were going to make it out alive.

"What am I going to do with you?" Falcone asked, clicking his tongue as he spoke and looked the trio over, "By rites you have to die."

"Whoa, hello! Uh… I'm late for work. Quite an adventure, I'll just be on my way." Mayor James exclaimed, as he made a beeline to the door.

A malicious smile spread over Victor's lips at hearing his bosses words, he'd been waiting for this. Ever since the day before when Jim had managed to slip between his fingers and make an escape. He was the best at what he did, that's why he worked under Don Carmine Falcone –he never failed and the fact that he couldn't bring him in the day before was unacceptable for him.

"You know…" Falcone breathed, looking Jim over as the detective stood in place, bravely ready to accept whatever hand he was about to be dealt, "Before you stormed in my house with your guns and your threats, Bird here was making quite the case about why I should spare your life."

Jim's eyes cut over to where she was still standing at the crime boss's side, before his gaze dropped to the floor.

"As I was telling her, trust is something that means a great deal to me and today you believed me. You trusted my word, that's a good first step-"

"Do we get a last meal or a smoke or anything… or just talking?" Bullock cut in from where he was still seated on the couch, he was sure he knew how this would play out and talk was becoming cheaper by the second.

"Hey, shut up." Bird ordered, as she readjusted the gun in her arms, and Bullock held his hands up in surrender and scooted back further onto the couch.

Once he was sure he had the floor again, Falcone said, "Such a waste to kill you though, Gotham needs men like you. Both of you, strong men with principals, I wish I could make you see I'm not the enemy, the system is not the enemy. The enemy is anarchy, but I told you that before, didn't I Jim?"

"Yes, you did."

"You didn't listen though."

"Still, I recently asked a favor of Bird and she gracefully followed through, for that I agreed to take her words into consideration and I've given a great deal of thought to what she's said." Falcone explained, and the smile fell from Victor's lips at his boss's words. His cold gaze went to the brunette who upon feeling like she was being watched, looked back to him with a smirk.

"I myself believe there might still be hope for you yet." The crime boss said and for the first time in the last few minutes, both detectives and Barbara looked to him –all with wide eyes as they wondered if he was going to spare them.

Bird looked over as Falcone looked at her and asked, "After what you saw here today, do you still think I should let them go?"

She didn't like being asked that question, it felt like her own head was on the chopping block. If she said yes and he did indeed let them go for them to only screw things up soon after, she could only imagine the punishment that fell on them would land on her too.  
Still, she'd came there with a goal that day and she'd told herself she'd do everything in her power to help Jim.

"Yes, I do." She finally answered after what felt like an eternity to the three people in the center of the room.

"Yes." Falcone nodded, looking back at them, "Go, get out of here before I change my mind."

"Wait a minute-" Victor interrupted, not able to comprehend how he could be letting them leave alive after everything they'd done.

"Quiet." He ordered, and the newly silenced Victor focused his unrelenting gaze back on Bird, wondering what she could have possibly had to say that would be worth sparing their lives.

Looking to the back of the room, Falcone waved with his hand to one of his men who came over and took the weapons from her that she'd lifted off the detectives and returned her knife and handgun that had been taken from her at the door.

Turning to face her, he watched as she returned the knife to her pocket and tucked the gun into the waistband of her jeans as he said, "It's been a pleasure, I trust we'll be meeting again soon."

Pausing for a moment before saying in a quiet voice, "If Fish finds out why I was here…"

"She won't." He assured her.

"Thank you." She gratefully replied, "For everything."

He nodded and she looked around once more before making her way across the room and past a still angry Victor Zsasz as she headed for the door. It wasn't until she'd made it outside and into her car that she'd even realized she'd been holding her breath.

 **~(That night)~**

Bird unlocked her door and walked into her dark apartment, shutting the door and locking it behind her, she pulled off her jacket before reaching for the light switch.

When the lights came on, she gasped and drew her gun when she saw a figure sitting on her couch. With a relieved breath when she saw who it was she asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

His eyes moved from the gun, back up to her face before Oswald asked, "When did you start carrying a gun?"

"Since Fish decided I would start going on almost every assignment she sends Butch out on." She replied, as she walked over and laid the gun down on her coffee table and dropped into one of the chairs across from where he was sitting. "She doesn't trust me you know, because of you."

His eyebrows raised at the accusation and he looked his friend over, her hair was damp from the rain and she looked exhausted. It was comparable, he thought, to how she looked in the hospital the night he'd came to see her after she'd been saved from The Goat.

"If she truly doubted you, then you'd be dead." He pointed out, quickly stammering to add, "But that won't happen."

A smile spread over his lips as he added, "Things are turning out splendidly. Maroni is heeding to me over the men who have worked for him for years and Nikolai is gone."

"That was you?" Bird asked, to which her best friend proudly smiled and nodded in response. "Frankie Carbone is out of the way as well. His men are now my men, they do as I say."

Bird watched him closely as he smiled at the thought of how he had men working for him now, something that even six months ago he could only dream of. There was a child like look of giddiness on his face as he spoke of how far he'd advanced in such a short time.

"That's really great." She said, managing a smile as she spoke, "I'm happy for you."

"Your expression says otherwise." Oswald pointed out.

"I'm just tired." Bird admitted, thinking how the statement could ring true in so many different ways. Though she didn't say it out loud, she also felt like she'd gotten the short end of the stick. He seemed to be going to places; places that she'd helped him get and she was still working under Fish –who no longer trusted her.

"We're well on our way to ruling Gotham." Oswald enthused, trying to lift her spirits, though it seemed like a nearly impossible task that night.

"If we live that long." She commented, and his expression grew solemn as he countered, "Don't be so cynical."

"That must be easy to say from where you're sitting."

Her words left a sinking feeling in his chest, the fights they'd get into he could handle, but it was times like this, where she didn't seem to care about much of anything that bothered him. Like she could take or leave life itself and not care either way.  
Her sense of apathy was unsettling to him and possibly most of all what bothered him the most when she got into those moods was how it left him wondering where they stood and if she cared for him at all.

"You shouldn't be here, Oswald." She breathed, "We're supposed to be staying away from each other."

"I just thought…" His voice trailed off, no longer sure of what his thoughts were when he entered her apartment earlier and sat in the dark for over an hour waiting on her to come home. "Well, no matter. I suppose I've just grown accustom to your company."

He'd expected her to return the sentiment, or at least he'd hoped she would have.

"I'll just be on my way then." He stated flatly, with little emotion in his voice as he tried to pretend he wasn't bothered at all by her behavior.

She stood up to follow him to the door so she could lock up after he left, but he took his time straightening out his suit with the hope that she might issue an apology for the way she was acting.

She didn't say anything at all and Oswald let out an irritated sigh that seemed to go unnoticed by Bird as she crossed her arms over her chest and waited on him to move towards the door.

Taking a deep breath, Oswald opened his mouth intending to simply bid her adieu and leave, but his own voice betrayed him as he said, "I seem to recall a time not so long ago when you said you didn't like to be away from me either."

Seemingly caught off guard by his words she asked, "What are you talking about?"

Remembering her exact words he reminded her, "You said we were tangled up in one another."

"I don't remember saying that to you." She argued, with her confusion growing as she explained, "That's something my father used to say, he'd try to tell me that our friendship wasn't healthy."  
Remembering back to one of the many times he'd told her so, she remembered, "He used to swear that I was so twisted up with you that I couldn't tell my own thoughts from the things he swore you put into my head."

He wasn't all that surprised that she couldn't remember telling him that, it was after she'd stumbled home from a late night of drinking and she was so far gone it was a surprise she'd made it to the right apartment.

"You said it made you feel ill, the thought of us not being able to see one another!" He exclaimed, catching himself off guard from the outburst and cringing at how frantic he sounded when he'd yelled at her.

Rather than seeming startled of the least bit affected by his flare-up, she rubbed her forehead and breathed, "Okay, you know what, Oswald? I can't do this right now, not after the day I've had and honestly, for all I know Fish could have people watching my apartment. I think you'd better go."

His blue eyes widened as he stared at her, completely unable to comprehend how it could be in the realm of possibility that the one person who he quite literally always craved to have around him could have such a lack of emotional response to his words.

His nostrils flared and his jaw locked in a tense position from his gritted teeth. Anyone else, he thought, anyone else he would have struck dead. It would be too easy, there was a gun between them on the coffee table after all. It was a pointless thought, he conceded, the only thing in his mind worse than her acting like this would be for him to have to live without her.

Bird was beginning to feel like if she really wanted him to leave she might just have to psychically push him out of the door, Oswald seemed to be acting like his feet were glued in place.

When she pulled in a breath like she was getting ready to say something else, he held up a hand to silence her and coldly snapped, "Say no more, I'm already gone."

Brushing past her he didn't look back as he unfastened the locks and left, slamming the door behind him.

Bird walked over, feeling a little guilty for the way she'd acted as she raised up and looked through the peephole to see that he was really gone. Most days she could handle the mess inside of her head and still manage to be a friend and handle Oswald, but today everything had just gotten to be too much and she couldn't comfort someone else when she felt like she, herself, was tearing apart at the seams.

Locking the door, Bird shut the light back off to the room and walked through her dark apartment into the kitchen where she retrieved an open bottle of wine from her refrigerator and carried it to her bedroom with her, kicking her shoes off on the way.

Oswald made his way down the hallway to the elevator, practically seeing red with rage and green with envy. It seemed an odd thing to be envious of, but he was jealous of the way Bird seemed to be locked in a perpetual state of not being able to care about anything, he was feeling things very deeply.

Most days he knew exactly what feelings were swimming around in his head and heart for her, sometimes he'd even dare call that emotion by it's proper name –only inside of his head, of course; it was love. He loved her, profoundly. It wasn't something that had happened over night and he'd never been able to pinpoint the exact moment it happened, but somewhere over the course of their knowing each other the deep bond he felt to her transcended into something more and he'd fallen for her. He'd come to adore everything about her that set her apart from the rest of the world; everything that made her –her.

But Love is such a pure emotion, and ever since he was a child he'd felt almost as if there was a machine inside of him that took such pure things and badly twisted and mangled them until they came out as something dark and unclean.  
Those days his feelings for her got as murky and polluted as Gotham River, so much so that it couldn't be described as love. The passion he felt turned into something of an obsession, a dark and dangerous storm inside of him that could keep him awake for days on end with impure thoughts both of her and the ways in which he'd like to make her suffer for not reciprocating his love.

It was a shadowed and empty place inside of him that he could so easily get lost to when he felt that storm starting to brew beneath the surface. So dark that at times he couldn't see her as a person, he'd see Bird as something he owned. A prized possession that only he was allowed to bring down from the top shelf to play with.

As the elevator opened on the ground floor of her building, he turned down a hallway to go out one of the side exits with a destination already in mind. He now knew how the rest of the night would play out; he'd go to a lounge that Bird frequented just a few blocks away, order himself a drink and take his time with it while he waited for her to fall asleep. Then he'd get back inside of her apartment; he had no doubts that she was probably already drinking herself to sleep and maybe even mixing it with those tranquilizers she favored so much.

Despite her making him leave, he wasn't ready to say goodbye to her yet, he knew he couldn't rest until he saw her again. He needed to feel close to her.  
Maybe he'd just stand next to her bed and watch her while she slept like he'd done so many times before, or maybe after smelling her favorite bottle of perfume, he'd take the risk of lying down next to her in bed and hoping his presence wouldn't wake her.

Yes, he thought with a twisted smile on his lips as he made his way down the sidewalk, that would be perfect. He'd spend the night awake watching her, lying close enough to feel the warmth from her body and by the morning when she awoke he'd be gone.  
She was _his_ after all, and just because she didn't seem to want him there –didn't mean he was ready to be done with her for the day.

* * *

 **A/N - Was anyone else excited to see Zsasz make an appearance this chapter? ^_^  
**

 **Also, for all of my Harvey Dent fans -don't worry, he'll be back next chapter!**

 **Miss E Charlotte, SmellYourScentForMiles, Guest, SusieSamurai, Love. Fiction. 2016 and MzzLightwood -Thank you all so much for showing your support and reviewing chapter 19!**


	21. Secrets and Scars

**XXI**

 _"A thousand times we die in one life. We crumble, break and tear apart the layers of illusion are burned away and all that is left, is the truth of who and what we really are." - Teal Scott  
_

* * *

Bird glanced down to the clock on her car radio and sighed to herself when she saw she was already a few minutes late on the time she was supposed to meet up with Liza, stepping down harder on the gas pedal she started zigzagging between the two northbound lanes, passing in between cars that weren't moving near as fast as she was.

Finally, she reached the turn she needed and turned off the main road onto a side street. As she made her way into the shopping center parking lot, she spotted Liza sitting on a bench reading a book outside of a stationary supply store and parked nearby. When she saw Liza heading her way, Bird leaned over and unlocked the passenger door so she could get in.

"Hey." Liza greeted, as she got into the car and looked through the darkly tinted windows before removing the white scarf she'd been wearing over her hair and her sunglasses.

"Sorry." Bird immediately said, "I know I should have been here about ten minutes ago, but I was with Harvey and lost track of time."

Liza looked over to the brunette and smiled as she thought of how she'd missed being able to talk to Bird without worrying someone might see them together. She'd almost missed just talking to her as a friend about things other than what she'd witnessed while being around Falcone.

"That's alright." Liza smiled, "Since you were with him, I can only imagine the last thing you wanted to do was rush out to see me."

"That's not true, I've missed you." Bird admitted, despite trying so hard to keep herself distanced and indifferent to the young woman that Fish had hired on as a secret weapon, Bird had grown fond of her. "Plus, this turned out to be the perfect excuse for running out on him."

"Uh-oh, trouble in paradise?" Liza questioned.

"It's not important." Bird dismissed, waving a hand through the air as she spoke. "What did you need to see me about?"

"No, I've got plenty of time. Tell me what's going on." Liza said, tucking the book she'd had out into her purse and turning in her seat to get a better look at Bird.

It wasn't smart to be seen with Liza anywhere, not that someone would be looking for either of them in a parking lot, but still Bird knew better than to get too comfortable and assume they were safe.  
Even so, she had missed her and she felt like she didn't have anyone to talk to about her relationship with Harvey Dent. Liza already knew about them, and as far as her friend's went she couldn't imagine confiding in Oswald about this sort of thing –she had her suspicions that he'd never even been on a date before.

"I guess I don't really have anyone else to talk to about this." Bird said with a small laugh, as she readjusted in her seat and looked over to Liza.

"Okay, so spill. Why were you so eager to leave him and get here today?" Liza pushed, for the first time in weeks feeling a tinge of normalcy gravitating back into her life. Sitting with a friend, talking about boyfriend problems –it didn't get much more normal than that.

"It's just…" Bird's voice trailed off, and she closed her eyes as she pulled in a deep breath and admitted, "We've been together for a while now, and even with things being so hectic –things are going pretty good other than…"

"Other than what?" Liza pushed, when Bird clammed up and didn't offer anything further.

"Taking the next step in our relationship." She replied, her eyebrows lowering when she spoke and stared straight ahead, even though she could feel Liza's eyes on her.

"You mean you two haven't slept together yet?" She guessed, watching her friend closely and getting a nonverbal answer when Bird nodded. "He hasn't tried to?" Liza asked surprised.

"He has; but he's not the problem. I am." She admitted, rubbing her forehead and finally looking at the girl in her passenger seat.

Before Liza had the chance to ask her to explain further, Bird surprised her and gave up the information willingly. "Something really terrible happened when I was a teenager and –"

"I understand." She quickly said, cutting her off when it was clear Bird didn't really want to get into the details. It was easy enough to guess from her words and the way she was acting, what had happened to her.

"We'll be kissing and things are going good and I'll start to think I can handle it, because I want to go there with him… but then his hands will start wandering or something, and all of a sudden I start feeling like…" Her voice trailed off, as she tried to put into words how she felt in those moments, "The best way I can describe it is it feels like I'm in a car that's speeding out of control and could wreck at any second. So I squirm away and make up some excuse."

The car fell into a silence and left Bird regretting she'd ever opened her mouth on the subject.

"I didn't know, I'm sorry." Liza softly said, as she looked over to Bird, who in her mind had to have been one of the strongest girls she'd ever met. She was rather hardened to life for someone her age and always acted so tough; Liza felt like it made sense now, knowing what she knew about her.

"It's okay. It was almost five years ago." Bird shrugged, rubbing her hands over her steering wheel as she tried not to think about what she'd gone through. Clearing her throat she said, "I've always been sort of different and I like it that way, but this is the one area of my life I'd give anything to be normal in. I just hate it, it doesn't matter how far I've come or how strong of a person I've made myself into… there are just things in my past that I can't outgrow."

"I think we all have that." Liza empathized, "We've all got things in our lives that left such a dark mark on who we are, that it changed us. Whether we wanted it to or not."

Bird looked over at her, wondering what Liza must have been through in her life to get her to where she is. Agreeing to become a secret weapon against the largest crime boss in Gotham had to be the act of a desperate person; desperate for far more than just money to pay rent like she'd claimed before.  
One day when they had longer to talk, maybe after Falcone was overthrown and Liza was out of harms way –Bird would find out her story. Learn what got her to such a low point in her life that she'd go along with Fish's plan.

"I think you should tell him." Liza finally broke the silence, "He really likes you and it will probably clear a lot of things up if you're honest with him."

"Ha." Bird scoffed, with a dry laugh as she shook her head back and forth thinking to the looks of sympathy he gave her when he learned about the rough start to childhood she'd had, "I think he's probably had his fill of my sad past."

Liza opened her mouth to argue with her, but Bird didn't give her much of a chance as she asked, "Enough about my relationship woes. What did you want to talk to me about, I thought you just met with Fish a few days ago?"

"I did, but I needed to talk to you and not her."

Seeing Bird was interested in what she had to say, she started by asking the question that had been bothering her for well over a week now. "When you were helping me get ready to meet Falcone, I asked if you knew him and you said you'd only met him a few times. Was that true?"

"Of course, I had no reason to lie to you." Bird stated, an ever growing look of confusion flooding over her features as she waited for her to go on.

Only this time it seemed that Liza had been bitten by the silence bug and the tables had turned to where Bird was now the one who needed to extract answers.

"Why?"

"About a week ago, I was cleaning his office and when I was dusting the desk, I found a folder in one of the drawers." Liza explained, her face taking on a serious expression when she continued, "It was about you."

"About me?" Bird exclaimed, "What about me exactly?"

"All kinds of things. There were pictures of you from events like Wayne Enterprise parties and at your high school graduation. Newspaper articles back from when you won some award in middle school. Just random things… all about you and, Bird, it was a big folder. I didn't even get to see everything before he came into the room and I nearly got caught snooping." Liza said, her words rushed as she spoke, feeling the panic she'd felt when the office door opened and she'd almost been caught red handed.

"Why does he have them?" Bird asked, "Does he have folders on other people too?"

"Not that I saw." She shrugged, "And I have no idea, it's not like I could go asking him about it."

"Can you take the folder, or at least make copies of the stuff in there so I can see it?" She questioned, knowing it was asking a lot of her.

"I was going to, but the next time I got into his office the folder was gone and I haven't seen it anywhere since."

Bird's eyebrows lowered as she processed everything she'd been told and her mind struggled to make rhyme or reason out of it.

"Do you think he had the folder for someone else, or it was Falcone's?" She questioned.

Liza shrugged, "I don't know."

"If you come across it again –"

"I'll see what I can do." Liza nodded, already knowing what was going to be asked of her, "But if he thinks I'm prying around in things I shouldn't be… he could kill me."

Bird nodded in response to her words, though her mind was already a trillion miles away. She wanted to see that folder, needed to see what all was in it. So much so that she was wondering just how hard it would be to sneak into the Falcone Mansion and try and find it for herself.

She was quiet enough she could probably slip by unnoticed to most of his men, the only real problem she could imagine coming across would either be getting caught by Don Falcone himself, or Victor Zsasz. After the looks he'd been shooting her when the crime boss let Jim and Bullock walk; she had a feeling he wasn't too fond of her now. Not that Zsasz ever seemed too fond of anyone, but if looks could kill –she'd have been struck dead that day.

Looking at the expensive watch on her wrist that Falcone had bought for her as a present, Liza let out a small sigh, "I should get going, it's close to dinner time."

"Okay, yeah, I need to go too." Bird breathed, shaking her head and trying to not obsess over the folder she'd been told about when there was nothing she could do about it.

Replacing the scarf over her hair and sliding her sunglasses back on, Liza paused as she was getting out of the car and said with a smile, "I'll be glad when this whole thing is over and we go get lunch without feeling like we'll meet a firing squad right after."

Her words earned a small laugh and smile from Bird, who watched as she left and stayed parked in her car long after Liza had driven off.

 **~(The next day)~**

Bird walked through Harvey Dent's living room, as she trailed her fingers over a small decorative metal sculpture displayed on the mantle of the fire place. He'd left a few minutes before to pick up their dinner from a Chinese restaurant a few streets away.

She'd been in his apartment many times before, though only a few times alone.  
There weren't many places that she felt at home, even growing up in Wayne Manor –she never felt at home inside those walls. Several generations of the Wayne family had lived in that house and she'd always felt like an imposter. Her own apartment was the place she felt most at home and next to there, she felt rather comfortable in Fish's club as well.

There was just something about Harvey's apartment that made her feel at ease now too. It was a rather large apartment in one of the older buildings in Gotham, with a set of large double wooden doors and a fire place that looked to be about three times the size of the one in her small apartment.  
Despite the aged architecture, his place was adorned with sleek furniture and stainless steel appliances. It was clean and polished with an open floor plan –the exact opposite of the place she called home.

Grabbing the remote up from the coffee table she dropped into a seat on the couch with her legs tucked up underneath her, seeing his long tan coat laying over the back of the cushion next to her, she reached over and brought the fabric to her nose and breathed in the scent of his cologne. A small smile spread over her lips at the crisp, clean scent that seemed to have a touch of oak in it.

There was a fluttering in her stomach as she returned the coat to where she'd picked it up from, it was dangerous for her to feel as strongly for him as she did. Not only could someone use his wellbeing as leverage against her, but the more she opened herself up to the feelings he stirred up, the more she had trouble shutting down and finding numbness when she needed it.  
Their relationship was uncharted territory for Bird. She'd had a couple of boyfriends from school growing up, but it was never anything serious and then after she'd been attacked she'd tried to date some, but couldn't trust anyone enough for things to get serious.

In fact, having a boyfriend or any sort of romantic relationship had never been a very big priority for her. She functioned just fine single and most of the time felt like she was too big of a mess to function alone let alone as one half of a couple.  
Maybe Harvey had just showed up in her life at the right time, or maybe it was because he was so understanding of her. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was, but something about him had changed her entire outlook on relationships and he'd quickly become someone she cared very deeply for.

 **~()~**

"I have something for you!" Bird exclaimed as Harvey returned to the living room from throwing their takeout trash away after dinner.

"Oh yeah?" He smiled, "What is it?"

Jumping up from where she'd been sitting, she went to where she'd dropped her purse on the small table near the front door and returned with a VHS tape in a plane white paper sleeve.

"What's this?" Harvey asked, with raised eyebrows as she handed the tape to him.

"A security tape." Bird admitted, smiling as she explained, "You told me about that jewelry store robbery case you were so stressed out about. About how no one would cooperate because they were scared of retaliation."

"Yeah…" He nodded, knowing exactly which case she was talking about. He knew the police had the right people in custody, but without the figurative smoking gun he knew he'd need to convince the jury, he'd been considering he might have to drop the charges.

"It's the security footage from inside the store that day." She explained, with a look on her face like he should have already put that together.

"That's impossible." He argued, shaking his head.

"Clearly it isn't." Bird replied, as she playfully raised her eyebrows and added, "Most of the high end stores have their footage backed up at a second location, in case something happens to the cameras inside of the store."

"I know that and we tried to get the footage from the security company, but the tape for that day was missing." He explained, looking back down to the tape in his hand and thinking there was no possible way she'd gotten her hands on the single piece of evidence he needed to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Silently, he crossed the living room and put the tape into the player before he returned and sat down next to her on the couch. Seeing that it was indeed security footage from the store with a date stamp of the day of the robbery, he side-eyed her for a moment before picking up the remote and speeding through until the timestamp was close to the reported time of the robbery.

It wasn't until he saw both of the robbers enter the store that he actually believed she'd managed to get the right tape. A look of shock spread over his face as he watched the crime play out and cringed his way through the part where one of the criminals pistol whipped one of the female employees behind the counter.

Finally seeing enough, he shut the TV off and turned to face her with an unreadable expression on his face.

"You're welcome." She stated, seeming rather pleased with herself.

"How the hell did you get that tape?" He asked, and immediately her expression changed to one of confusion when it seemed like instead of being grateful, he was angry at her.

Her lips pressed into a thin line as she stared back at him, knowing she couldn't exactly tell him the truth. That she'd spent a few hours the night before terrorizing and terrifying the manager of the security company into handing over the tape.

"I spoke to the manager of the store's security company."

"So did I… about a hundred times." Harvey explained how he'd even threatened to slap him with several charges –including evidence tampering, but the manager was more afraid of what would happen to him if he talked than he was afraid to go to prison. "I thought he destroyed the tapes."

"No, he was holding onto the evidence." Bird said, "Think about it, holding onto the tape provided him more security than if he'd destroyed it."

"I understand that. What I don't understand is how you managed to get it from him, or why the hell you'd even get yourself involved in this." He said, his voice raised as he spoke to her.

"To help you, Harvey." Bird reminded him, her own voice raised to match his tone.

"I shouldn't have even told you about the case." He breathed under his breath, as he rubbed a hand over his face. Looking back to her he stated, "I wouldn't have breathed a word if I'd known you were going to get involved in this. These are dangerous people, Starling, and the last thing I want is your name coming up in something like this."

"I don't see what the huge deal is." She admitted, shrugging as she scooted back further into her seat and wrapped her arms around herself. "You said you needed something concrete against them or you might have to drop the case and now you have video proof of the robbery with a few clear frames of both their faces."

"The big deal is that you might have just put yourself into a lot of danger and what am I supposed to tell a judge about this, I can't say that I got the tape myself because I didn't. If I say that you-"

"Oh no, you can't use my name in a courtroom… or to anyone for that matter." She quickly cut in and was met by a rather blank expression from him at her words.

"Can't you just say it came from some confidential informant or something?" Bird asked, trying to offer up a solution to fix the problem for him.

"It's not that simple." He sighed, his eyes tracing over her face as he spoke.

"Okay then." She breathed, "So what you're saying is that this would all be fixed if the manager of the company came to you with the tape? Then you could say you got it straight from him and get a statement or something?"

"In a perfect world, yeah." Harvey conceded, "But I don't want you getting involved in this… any more than you already are now."

Looking taken aback by his reaction to her trying to help, her eyebrows lowered as she said, "Harvey, I was just trying to help. I don't want to get into a fight over this."

"I don't want to fight with you either, I know you were just trying to help but…" His voice trailed off long enough for him to pull in a deep breath and try and get a handle on his anger over the situation, before he finished, "I'd rather lose this case and keep you safe, than to win because you put yourself in peril to help me."

His words brought a small smile to her lips, coming from him that meant a lot. His job and quest to bring criminals to justice and clean up Gotham meant so much to him, that she knew it was a big deal for him to feel that way about her.

She watched as he got up and took the tape out of the VCR before sliding it back into the plain paper case and dropping it to the table.

"I know my saying this probably won't do any good… but, you don't need to worry about me. I can take care of myself out there." She nodded, her head to the large windows lining the far side of the living room wall as she spoke and he sat back down beside her.

"You're right, it doesn't do any good." He admitted, as he took her chin in his hand and looked into her eyes as he spoke, "I do worry about you, Starling. I'm not doubting your ability to take care of yourself, but I swear every time I see you –you've got another injury or mark on you."

With his other hand, he brushed her hair to the side to get a look at the most recent wound on her head near her hairline. The wound had almost closed up completely, but the skin around it was still swollen and discolored from the bruising.

"Night clubs are a dangerous business." She dismissed his words and concern with a small smile, but it did little to ease his mind. He knew there were some things she must not be telling him, but the last time he pried, he caused her to bring up painful memories from her childhood and he was still feeling guilty over that.

"In Gotham, I have no doubt about that." He agreed, leaning in as he brought her face to his and pressed a kiss to her lips. Pulling back just enough to look at her, he added, "Maybe you should get into a different business."

A soft smile was on her lips, which brushed against his as she argued, "But I like my job."  
She'd barely gotten her words out before he reclaimed her mouth with his own; the taste of the sweet wine she'd drank with her dinner was still on her lips and for the moment seemed to be the most enchanting thing he'd ever tasted.

It wasn't long until it felt like the temperature of the room had reached a sweltering high. She ran her hands over his chest and her fingers gripped onto his shirt as she pulled him closer, his fingers were quickly tangled in her soft hair and their tongues danced with both of them feeling a deep need to be as close as possible to the other.

There was a hunger in not only the way he kissed her, but in his every touch. He wanted her, all of her and she couldn't deny how much she wanted him too, something that soon became evident when her hands blindly sought out for the bottom of his shirt and their mouths separated just long enough for her to pull the fabric off over his head.

Her heart started to race even faster inside of her chest when she placed her hands against his bare skin and ran her finger tips over the coating of hair across his chest. Everything about him affected her in a way she didn't think she'd experienced before. She ached for him; for his kiss and his touch. In those moments when she was in his arms, she started to feel alive again; a feeling that seemed to be less and less attainable with each passing year.

Her mouth hung open fighting for her breath at the feeling of his mouth on her neck as he now lay above her on the couch, his hands started to wander over her body as his mouth left a searing trail from her neck down to her collar bone.

It wasn't until his hands crept under the sides of her shirt that it started to feel like her throat had closed off and she couldn't take a breath. Closing her eyes she leaned her head back and tried to stay in the moment with him, hold tight to the way he made her feel, but as he started to raise her shirt the only thing she became aware of were the scars left behind from the two gunshot wounds she's sustained the night of her attack.  
Bird hated the sight of the scars in the mirror and if they looked that bad to her, she could only imagine that the sight might just be enough to repulse him.

"I want to leave it on." She managed to say in a breathless voice, that was barely audible to her own ears and left her wondering for a few seconds if he'd even heard her.

"What?" Harvey asked, his voice husky as he hovered just above her, with his own breath rushing in and out of his lungs almost uncontrollably.

"My shirt." Bird stammered, swallowing hard as she stared up at him.

A confused look spread over his face and she reached down, placing her hands on his wrists as he held onto her sides under the fabric of her shirt, she softly said in an unsure tone, "I'd like to leave it on."

Slowly he moved his hands and looked at her like he was waiting on an explanation, but she wasn't ready to give him the real one.

"It's just…." She breathed, looking around before her eyes locked back with his, "The lights are on."

With a half-smile, his head cocked to the side and with a small chuckle he nodded to the coffee table where his shirt landed and argued, "That hardly seems fair."

The deep, husky tone to his voice made her stomach clench in a small fit of excitement she could feel all over her body, but it just wasn't enough to override the feeling of fear that intimacy caused her or enough for her to let go of her insecurities.

"Hey." He breathed, seeing a distant look starting to show in her eyes as she got lost in her own head. Harvey brought her back to the present with him as his lips crashed against hers, and as he kissed down the side of her face back to her neck he breathed against her skin, "It doesn't matter if the lights are on or not, you've got nothing to worry about."  
"You're beautiful." He assured her and even though his words brought a smile to her lips, she was nearly certain he wouldn't be saying that if he saw her bullet wound scars.

"In fact…" He said, brushing the hair from her face, their eyes locked in a heavy gaze and his voice came out in a whisper as he spoke, "You're the most beautiful person I've ever met."

"You're just saying that." Bird smiled, raising up and claiming his mouth with a deep kiss.

The taste of her kiss still lingered on his lips when she pulled back and rested her forehead against his, with her sweet breath heavy on his face as she fought for her breath. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't truly believe it." Harvey promised her in an honest tone.

"What?" He asked, as she pulled her forehead away from his and rested her head back against the seat cushion and stared at him.

"I'm just thinking." She whispered her admission, as she ran her hands up and down his strong arms, internally thinking that she'd give anything in the world to not have an almost paralyzing fear take over every time they'd come close to having sex.

"About what?" He asked, with a smile as he stared back at her with one of the most attentive and loving looks she'd ever seen, especially directed at her.

"That I'm lucky to have you." She said in a soft voice with a smile that actually reached her eyes, which was something he didn't see very often with her.

Lowering his head to kiss her again, he thought that she had it backwards. He was the lucky one, he'd never met anyone like her and it was already hard for him to imagine his life without her in it.

Just as she started to melt back into the moment with him, her phone rang from the coffee table near them and she started to reach for it, but Harvey intercepted as he grabbed her hand and their fingers laced together, "Ignore it." He breathed against her neck.

"It could be important-" She tried to say, but her voice came out muffled against his mouth as he kissed her to silence the argument. Every single time they got time alone and things started to get heated, something always came up.

Under her fingers she could feel the muscles in his back ripple under his skin as his clothed lower body moved against hers and she couldn't hold back from moaning into his mouth; his body tensed in response and he couldn't remember ever wanting someone as bad as he wanted her.

There was a new sense of urgency both in his actions and he kissed her harder; lips crashing against hers as his hands traveled over her clothed body, the change of intensity slightly startled Bird –but she tried to push her anxiety to the side. That was until his hands found their way back under her shirt and she felt the fabric sliding up her skin as he tried to get rid of the cloth barriers between their bodies.

Again, her throat started to feel like it was closing up and cutting her air supply off. Her stomach did somersaults –only it was no longer from the sense of excitement his touch elicited from her.

Her phone rang again and the interruption was her saving grace as she wriggled out from underneath him and grabbed her phone to see who was calling her.

With a heavy sigh, Harvey sat back up and looked at her waiting to hear who it was who'd interrupted them.

"It's uh, it's my brother." She admitted, ignoring the call as she explained, "I'll call him back from my car, I should get going anyways."

Avoiding his eyes she quickly got to work at smoothing her hair back down and straightening up her clothes while trying to control her still labored breathing.

"You could stay?" Harvey offered, reaching out and taking one of her hands in his own.

"I wish I could, but I can't. I need to get to work early and my birthday is in a few days and…" Her voice trailed off when she got the feeling he was no longer listening to what she had to say. With an audible groan, he reached forward and grabbed his shirt as he hastily pulled it back on over his head.

She knew he was frustrated in more than one way and honestly she was too, but again things just felt like they'd escalated too quickly and the feeling of being on a crash course had set back in.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, as she stood up and stealthily lifted the security tape from the coffee table. Keeping it out of view from him, she made a beeline for her purse and slipped it in without him seeing it or noticing it was gone.

Opening one of the heavy wooden double doors, she started to step out into the hallway thinking with as mad as he seemed he wasn't going to follow her, but to her surprise he caught her just as she was stepping out into the hallway with a hand on her arm.

Turning around to face him she noticed there was no longer any visible traces of the angry expression he'd been wearing just moments before. She herself was prone to mood swings, being at one end of the spectrum one minute and the complete opposite the next –but it was even unsettling to her how quickly he could go from seeming enraged to acting like everything was fine.  
She still remembered the night she'd came to see him and he was so mad she really thought he was going to shut the door on her when she stood in the way.

"What are you doing for your birthday?" He asked, with his signature smile back on his lips.

Her eyes scanned his face closely, looking for any sign that he was still mad at her, but if he was he didn't have a tell.

When she didn't answer he continued, "I was thinking, if you didn't already have plans that you could come over and I could whip up something for dinner-"

"You cook?" Bird asked, with a small laugh as she smiled at him, thankful that he wasn't upset with her over what had just happened.

"I'm no chef, but yes… I can cook a few things." He laughed.

"Maybe another night." She declined with a sad smile, "Having breakfast with my brother is the closest thing I do to celebrating the day."

Tucking her hair behind her ears she admitted, "I wouldn't even do that, but it's sort of a tradition and I have a feeling he's already got my new silver spoon."

"Silver spoon?" Harvey asked and Bird nodded as she explained, "We got into a fight when were kids one year, I can't even remember what it was about, but I'd said something to the effect of he couldn't understand how I felt because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and when my birthday rolled around he told our dad he wanted to get me a silver spoon for a present."

They both laughed and Bird smiled as she added, "So now every year since then we have breakfast and he gives me a new silver spoon to add to my collection. Each year they get more decorative too, last year the handle was encrusted with chocolate diamonds and pink pearls."

"I think that might be cutest story I've ever heard." He admitted, before offering, "If you're only busy in the morning, then I could still see you later that night?"

Seeing the look on her face and knowing she was about to reject the idea he said, "If you're not feeling brave enough to let me cook for you, then we could go out somewhere. Anywhere you want, I just want to see you."

"Aside from seeing my brother, I like to spend the day alone." She asserted in a tone that let him know there was really no talking her into anything.

Reading the expression on his face she shrugged, "It just seems stupid to make a big deal out of it."

"But it's your birthday, you should celebrate." He enthused, thinking she was nowhere near the age when people start wishing they'd age backwards and hated the reminder of being a year older.

"I don't know when my actual birthday is." Bird admitted, her eyes dropping to the floor as she spoke and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Wait, are you serious?" Harvey questioned, as he moved closer to her and affectionately ran his hands over her upper arms before taking one of her hands in his own and stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

"I was about six months old when they found me in a bassinet outside of a church." Bird explained with a shrug, "The doctors could only speculate how old I was, but they had no way of narrowing it down to the exact date. So who knows when my actual birthday is."

"Starling…" Harvey started to say, but she cut him off the second she heard the tone in his voice.

"It's okay." She said wearing one of her wide, pearly white smiles that didn't come close to reaching her eyes. "I need to get home for the night though."

He nodded, but made no attempt to let go of her hand. A few moments passed before he said, "If you change your mind and want some company, call me or just come over. I don't care what time."  
With a soft smile, she raised up and pressed a kiss to his lips that was eagerly returned, before she left to get on the elevator.

* * *

 **A/N - See? Told you that Harvey would be back this chapter. Lol.**

 **Thank you all so much for reading! I feel like I haven't mentioned in the last few author notes -so if anyone is interested you can follow me on tumblr (sagelondyn) I make a lot of edits and posts to go along with my stories. ^_^**

 **Thank you so much to MizzLightwood, Miss E Charlotte and to Love. Fiction. 2016 for reviewing chapter 20! Thanks for the support.**


	22. The Ties That Bind

**XXII**

 _You think my bruised knees are sort of pretty_  
 _And I think your tired eyes are kind of nice_  
 _And when I first met you, there was a garden_  
 _Growing from a black hole in my mind - Halsey, Garden_

* * *

 **~(Flashback)~**

"W-what can I do to help?" Oswald stammered as he shut the door to Bird's apartment behind them.

Slightly stumbling, Bird let out a pained groan and leaned against her wall as she looked down to her bloodstained shirt and tilted her head back in hopes of controlling the steady stream of blood pouring from her nostrils.

"I think it's broken." She managed to hiss as she reached a hand up to her nose but it was too painful to even touch.

"I… um…" Oswald breathed, wishing he could assure her the damage wasn't severe, but he saw the already dark bruising forming on her face. "I'll just get you a washcloth." His words came with a shrug of the shoulders as he passed her and went into her small, but overcrowded kitchen.

When he returned, he came to a stop just in front of her and hesitated with the warm, wet rag in his hand before he tried to reach out and place it against her swollen and still bleeding nose. Almost immediately she slapped his hands away and roughly jerked the cloth away from him.

Taking a couple steps backwards, he watched her and could tell by the look in her eyes that she was angry with him. He was sure she was placing all the blame solely on his shoulders, but the weight felt unjust to him –seeing as how he'd never asked her to get involved in the first place.

"Perhaps you should sit down?" He offered, stepping to the side to allow her a direct route to her couch.

"Perhaps you shouldn't be stealing from people who are twice your size and that you can't manage to out run!" She shot back at him, as she moved in an unsteady pace over to her couch, before dropping into a seat and leaning her head back.

Sitting down next to her, Oswald looked at his bloody and swollen knuckles from his attempt to fight back against the men who'd given him a beating. A beating which surely would have been much worse if Bird hadn't come to his aid; which resulted in her taking the worst of it and possibly ending up with a broken nose.

Reaching a hand up to his own face, he felt the stickiness of the drying blood beneath his fingertips and cringed as he rubbed over where the skin had been busted open over his cheekbone.

Clearing his throat, his voice was a little unsteady as he began to say, "Bird, I must apologize-"

"Every time you start an apology that way means it's about as insincere as they come. So just save it."

He bit down on the side of his tongue at the snappiness in her voice and used every ounce of restraint he possessed to not snap back at her.

"Well…" He breathed, "I don't recall asking for your assistance, Bird."

"Would you have preferred I just turned the other cheek and watch them beat you to death?" She asked with a bitter tasting laugh that seemed to find its way right under his skin and for a single fleeting moment questioned why he continued to put up with her. That was until he looked back over at her and was instantly reminded of how deep his feelings had grown for his best friend, so much so that he now felt helpless. No matter what, there was no escaping it. He couldn't leave her even if he wanted to.

Raising her head back up and looking at him, her mouth hung open from the coppery taste of blood stinging the tip of her tongue and for the first time she realized how bad and bloodied his own face was.

"Are you okay?" She questioned.

"Are you?" He repeated back, his blue eyes locking with hers as he spoke.

She shrugged and broke eye contact with him, before she quietly asked, "Why were you stealing money anyways?"

When he didn't answer, she turned on the cushion to get a better look at him. "Oswald?"

Blowing out a burdened sigh, he admitted, "Your birthday is next week."

Feeling like the words had hit her right in the chest, she closed her eyes and guessed, "You were trying to get money to buy me something?"

"Despite your negative feelings for your birthday..." He answered back, his voice not above a whisper when he added, "You deserve a gift. A nice gift."

"So my birthday, huh?" She couldn't help but laugh. "My birthday is why we're both sitting here beaten to a bloody pulp?"

When she looked at him, she could see a smile toying at the corner of his mouth and with a sigh Bird admitted, "You're impossible to stay mad at sometimes."

Standing up she started for her bedroom, to get to the bathroom as she called over her shoulder, "The next time you need money. Let's rob a bank instead of trying to steal from a couple bookies. Less dangerous and I could be in and out –in no time."

As she walked into her bathroom she stared at herself in the mirror, thinking that her birthday was always bad enough –the last thing she wanted on top of having to deal with it, was the possibly broken nose and busted up face staring back at her.

Dropping the crimson rag onto the side of the sink, she opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out a half empty bottle of pain pills. Popping a few of them in her mouth, she turned the faucet on and leaned down collecting water in her hand several times until she'd successfully washed the pills down.

Just as she turned the running water off, she could have sworn she heard her front door open. Pausing, she listened for movement, but when she heard nothing she started to wash the blood off of her face until she heard Oswald call out, "Bird?"

"What?" She asked, walking back into the living room and coming to a stop when she saw her dad standing just inside of the door. His eyes widening as he stared between the pair of friends.

He couldn't tell if they'd gotten themselves into trouble or possibly even gotten into a fight with one another.

"Dad?" Bird asked surprised, looking around her living room and glancing at Oswald from the corner of her eye before asking, "Why didn't you call before you came over?"

"What happened to you?" He questioned, as he started walking towards her and shot an accusing look at Oswald, who shifted his stance and tried to explain, "Sir, I can assure you-"

"I wasn't speaking to you." Thomas curtly said, not letting him finish his sentence. Stopping in front of Bird he added, "I was asking my daughter."

"I'm fine." She replied, her voice sounded nasally and the bruising had started to spread to under her eyes, causing the dark circles to be even more apparent.

"You don't look fine." He argued, his tone coming out gruffer then he'd meant for it too.

Immediately mirroring his attitude, Bird's tongue was sharp as she questioned, "Did you need something?"

"I'm not here to fight." Thomas said, holding his hands up in a sign of surrender. Taking a moment to try and control his emotions, he added, "I just don't like seeing you hurt."

When the room fell back into a tense silence, he said, "I was hoping we could speak, alone." His eyes cut over to where Oswald was still standing and watching them.

"Oh." He breathed, straightening out his disheveled suit, Oswald politely nodded as he started for the door, "Of course, I was just going-"

"You don't have to leave." Bird cut him off, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked to her dad and repeated. "He doesn't have to leave. It's my apartment and I want him here."

Thomas pulled in a deep breath, almost immediately regretting it when he was in such close proximity to Oswald and he caught a whiff of the younger man's pungent odor and found himself wondering yet again how his daughter ever got mixed up with Oswald Cobblepot.

He glanced around Bird's apartment, his eyes stopping on several decorative glass bowls filled to the brim with shiny objects –everything from simple marbles to expensive jewelry. He also picked up on several items around her living room that were lined up in rows of three and judging from the overflowing grocery bags off to the side of the room, he could only imagine her kitchen was packed full of enough food to feed everyone in her apartment building.

Looking back to his daughter, Thomas observed how she seemed on edge. So much so that she almost looked as if she were about to dart away from the room at any given moment. She looked thinner than the last he'd seen her –it worried him.

She'd not always been the most stable person, but at least when she was living at Wayne Manor, he was able to somewhat keep an eye on her. Only now that she was living out on her own, it seemed everything had gotten worse.

Her collecting and hoarding of shiny objects had most certainly led her to commit countless thefts –which left him wondering if that was what had left her beaten that day. Her need to keep large amounts of food around her was apparently now spilling out of her kitchen, and she had items lined up in threes more than she ever did at their family home.

It seemed to him that all of her ticks and obsessions were taking over. Instead of a home, Bird's apartment seemed more like a prison to her dad. As if everything inside was chaining her in place and didn't allow her room to breathe, or try and get better.

He'd known all along that his daughter probably wouldn't do well on her own, but knowing that Oswald was around her much of the time now, left Thomas blaming him for how deep Bird had seemed to fall into her destructive lifestyle.

For the life of him, he couldn't understand the bond they seemed to have, or how it seemed to ring so deep that in many ways it seemed as if she'd picked him over her family. Not to mention, he was still sure that Oswald had –had a hand in the disappearance of the private investigator he'd hired over a year ago.

"I was going to see if you wanted to join us for dinner later this week?" Thomas finally managed to say, "Dinner with your _family_ … before your birthday."  
Even if he could get her away from her life of crime, away from Oswald Cobblepot for a single evening it would be for the best he thought. Despite now knowing how upset Martha would be when she saw Bird's bruised and cut face. He'd probably spend the rest of the night trying to calm his wife down after the dinner. Not to mention it would lead to Bruce asking questions that no one was ready to answer.

"Oh…" She breathed, seeming caught off guard by the invitation. "What day?"

"Does it matter?" Thomas questioned back, leaving a slightly irritated Bird to point out, "Yes, dad. It matters… I do have a job-"

"Working in that club hardly counts as a job, Starling." The words came out before he could stop himself, but at least he'd gotten a hold on his voice before he pointed out how often she called him for loans which she never paid back.

He saw the look of anger starting to build in her eyes and he opened his mouth in hopes of diffusing the situation before it got any worse. But it was then that his eyes fell to the bowl of objects on her table and he spotted an emerald necklace, a very familiar necklace that he specifically remembered buying for his wife.

"Is that your mothers necklace?" He questioned, a stunned look on his face. She'd done a lot of questionable things, but stealing from her own family was a new low he'd hoped she wouldn't hit.

"No!" She quickly said, seeming almost immediately distressed.

"You're lying." He yelled, shaking his head back and forth as he said, "Is that why you show up at home at all hours of the night? To steal from us."

"I…" Her voice trailed off as she saw her dad take a step towards the table, as if he were going to take the necklace away from her collection. Sweat started to bead across her forehead and her hands felt clammy.

In truth she'd never intended to steal anything from them, but when she went into her parents room and saw the necklace laying out on her mother's vanity she couldn't help herself. It was sparkling so beautifully in the light and she felt like she couldn't breath until she had the necklace in her possession.

Seeing Thomas advancing towards the table, and seeing how distressed and pale Bird looked. Oswald quickly plucked the glass bowl up from the table and stepped back beside Bird as he accused, "You're upsetting her." Oswald's tone was near frantic when he spoke, like his friend's mood was directly affecting his own.

Thomas watched as Oswald handed the bowl to Bird and she seemed to calm down some, as she clutched the bowl tightly against her and avoided her father's stare.

He opened his mouth and pulled in a deep breath, he wanted to yell, wanted to scream. Both at Bird for the state she'd let herself fall into and at Oswald to leave and never come back.  
But he managed to stop himself before he did. He was more levelheaded than that and it was easy enough to see that whatever he'd say would fall on deaf ears.

Shaking his head in complete disbelief at how the day had turned out, he turned and left his daughters apartment –knowing if he even opened his mouth to tell her goodbye, he'd end up saying something else that would only further the wedge driven between them.

 **~(End of flashback)~**

* * *

Oswald made his way down the hallway of Bird's apartment building until he came to a stop outside of her door and knocked on it for a brief second before he turned the handle and let out a sigh when it was locked.

He took the set of keys he'd secretly had made out of his pocket and unlocked her door. The past week he'd been sneaking in almost nightly and one day he'd taken her keys to have a set made for himself, not that it took someone with his skillset very long to pick a lock, but it was much quicker to have his own keys.

He let out a groan as he tried to open the door but it only moved a few inches before colliding with something hard and heavy.

"Bird?" He called out, though he doubted she could hear him over some movie that was playing loudly from her television in the otherwise dark room.

After a struggle, he managed to push the door open wide enough for him to slip inside and reach for the light switch. When the room was lit up, he could see it was her desk with a filing cabinent sitting on top that had been pushed against the door and her coffee table had been pushed against the desk.

"Bird?" He called out louder, after he'd powered down the television.

When she still didn't answer he made his way to her closed bedroom door and paused to knock a few times, but when there was no response from inside he cracked the door and peeked inside to see an empty room.

After checking both under the bed and in her closet, he stepped into the bathroom and switched the light on. His eyes immediately were drawn to the shower curtain witch seemed to move ever so slightly.

"It's me." He said in what he hoped was a calming enough voice to diffuse her surely panicked state.

Slowly, he pulled the curtain back to see his best friend laying on her side fully clothed in the bath tub huddled up in a fetal position with her eyes pinned tightly shut.

It was going on forty minutes ago that he'd gotten a frantic call from Bird, with her speech slurred and broken sentences that didn't seem to be coming from anyplace logical.

"Bird?" He said, watching her closely.

Her eyes popped up so fast he nearly stumbled over his feet as he took a step back in case she tried to attack him while lost in a hallucination.

"Oswald!" She gasped, sitting up and pulling her knees up to her chest with wide eyes as she yelled, "The lights! Turn the lights off, they'll see us."

Glancing around them he pointed out, "We're the only two here-"

"The lights!" She shrieked and it was clear there was no reasoning with her in that moment in time.

Quickly he switched the lights back off only to be met with the new demand that he shut the door and lock it.

Obeying what he was told, after the door was locked he pulled his phone from his pocket to use the light as he took a seat on the closed toilet lid and looked over at her in the dim lighting as she stared straight ahead with dilated eyes that couldn't seem to focus on anything. Aside from her hastened breathing the only other sound was the noise being made as she rocked back and forth.

"What did you take?" He questioned, now using the light from his phone to search for a pill bottle or something else to give him a clue of what she was tripping on, but the only thing he saw was an empty glass bottle on it's side next to her in the tub.

"Shh!" She hissed, her head abruptly turning in his direction, before whispering, "The light!"

Blowing out a heavy sigh, he flipped his cellphone shut but kept it in his hands in case he needed quick access to a light source.

The room was eerily silent as the pair sat in complete darkness, finally it was too much and he decided to test his luck with speaking again.

"Bird?"

"Oswald?" She whispered back, before her voice lowered so much he could just barely hear her as she asked, "Do you think they left?"

"Who?" He asked.

"I heard them talking… talking about me, they're coming for me." She breathed out, her voice shaking with terror as she spoke, "There we all these gunshots and I barricaded myself in here, I had to keep them out."

He opened his mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance as she continued in a slurred voice, "They can't see in the dark, I have to stay out of the light."

He knew from both the sound she was making and her broken voice that she'd started to rock at a faster pace and was sounding like she was getting more agitated by the moment.

"We're surrounded by darkness. They won't find us here." Oswald said, as he let out a heavy sigh and leaned back against the tank of the back of the toilet and closed his eyes.

Over the years, he'd witnessed Bird in various states of intoxication. He'd seen drinking and drugs turn into a happy-go-lucky person who thought every single person she passed needed a hug and was her new best friend, he'd seen her fly into fits of uncontrollable rage where even he didn't feel entirely safe being around her and he'd sat up with her many times when she'd start drinking and spiral down into a depression where he was afraid to take his eyes off her for fear she might hurt herself.

Then there were the times like this, when she'd presumably taken the wrong pills mixed with alcohol or gotten her hands on something experimental from the streets and gotten so paranoid that he once had to physically hold her down to keep her from cutting into her arm because she was convinced someone had implanted some sort of chip inside of her.

He was mad at her for many reasons, not only because of whatever she'd taken, but the fact that it had been over a week since the night she'd told him to leave her apartment. Over a week of no contact, aside from his sneaking into her apartment of course, and then he's the one she called on when she spiraled out of control.

She was lucky to have him, he thought, if he were a lesser man he'd have left her to face her demons alone. But here he sat, in a pitch black room with her –coming to her rescue the second she'd called him.

It meant something; he told himself. Knowing that when she was at her lowest, he was the one she called on -it spoke volumes to how close they were and how deep their bond was.

"The gunfire you heard was on the television." He stated, readjusting to a more comfortable position knowing they were probably going to be cooped up in her bathroom for a quite a while until she felt safe enough to at least move into the living room.

 **~()~**

Oswald watched Bird closely as she drank the last of her third bottle of water and worked on her second slice of delivery pizza. He wasn't entirely sure how long he'd been there, but he was sure they'd spent at least a couple hours sitting in the dark bathroom until he was able to convince her it was safe to go to the living room and had since been trying to sober her up with food and hydration.

He bit down on the side of his tongue as she watched her picking apart the crust of her slice of pizza, finally unable to hold his silence any longer he complained, "I almost didn't come when you called. It has been over a week since we last spoke, after all."

There was a deadened look in her eyes as she glanced at him and said, "I wasn't making it up, you know. Fish doesn't fully trust me, while at work she's assigned Butch to keep an eye on me and for all I know she could have people watching me outside of work too."

Her eyes were still having trouble focusing as she looked at him and asked, "Why are you so mad? You knew what it was going to be like when it got to this stage, we both knew it could be a while before we could see or even talk to one another."

Dropping what was left of the pizza crust into the box, she rubbed her greasy fingers on her shirt before rubbing her eyes with her back of her hands and mumbling, "It's not like I wanted to cut contact with you."

"You didn't?" He asked, seeming surprised by the revelation.

"Of course not." She said, her voice gruffer than she'd intended, "You know you're my favorite person to be around."

He watched her in silence as she seemed to be struggling to stay awake, still in a haze from the drugs and booze she'd consumed earlier in the day. When she looked back at him, Oswald glanced around the room and his eyes landed on an expensive decorative box on her coffee table that was still out of it's place and moved behind her door.

"Another spoon?" He guessed, knowing her brother got her a silver spoon every year on her birthday.

With a half-smile on her lips she nodded, "I think it's my favorite one so far."

Her eyes started to close as her head slumped forward until she jerked back awake and looked around with a stunned expression, like she had no idea what had just happened. Looking back to Oswald she said in a sincere, yet garbled voice, "Thank you for showing up when I called, even though you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad." He quickly added, realizing the brunt of the misunderstanding had been his own fault for being so quick to anger and think she'd push him to the side.  
As much as he hated the idea of having to stay away from her, he couldn't deny that now was the time for it to happen. They were so close to overthrowing Maroni and Falcone and one wrong move now wouldn't only set them back months into the plan, but could very well be the end of them both.

"I think I should lie down." Bird finally stated after Oswald watched her start to nod off for at least the tenth time.

"I'm inclined to agree." He said with a smile toying at the corner of his lips.

She stood up and swayed from side to side before taking a few stumbling strides towards her room with Oswald close behind in case she fell down. Once she got sat down on her bed, he sat down facing her and asked, "You're okay to be on your own now?"

"Yes, thank you." She offered a smile with her eyes half closed, "Lock the door when you leave?"

"Of course." He nodded, watching her for a moment before he retrieved a black crushed velvet coated jewelry box from his pocket and held it out to her as he said, "Happy Birthday, Bird."

"You got me a present?" She asked, appearing to wake up a little more as she took the box from him and slowly opened it to reveal one of the most beautiful solitaire diamond necklaces she'd ever seen.  
Hanging from the elegant, thin platinum chain was a round cut diamond suspended in a floating bail design. It was utterly perfect in her eyes, the diamond was quite possibly the clearest one she'd ever seen; brilliantly reflecting back every ounce of light that touched the gem.

Her silence made him fear she didn't care for the gift and despite having spent upwards of twelve thousand on the single piece of jewelry, he stammered, "I know it might not be up to par with some of your more expensive jewelry, but –"

"It's perfect." She quickly said, putting his mind to ease.

"It's honestly perfect. I love it." Bird continued, with a smile and spoke nothing but the truth. She didn't wear much jewelry, except to special events and even then it seemed like everything she'd came across was too gaudy for her taste. But the necklace he'd gotten her was something she could see herself wearing on a daily basis, it was a simple and clean yet elegant design.

Taking it from the box, she handed it to him and leaned her head forward with her hair gathered in her hand. His fingers stumbled with the tiny, delicate clasp at first, but finally he opened it and was able to get it re-latched behind her neck; though he wasn't able to stop himself from brushing his fingertips over the exposed skin on the back of her neck as he finished.

Raising her head back up, she smiled at him and he returned the gesture until she caught him off guard when she leaned in and threw her arms around his neck in a forceful hug that nearly knocked him over.

He wanted to hug her back, have another memory of the how it felt to hold her in his arms locked in his head, but he couldn't get his arms to move. With a mother who was constantly petting on him, he failed to understand why he himself was so awkward when it came to physical contact with another person –even with Bird.

Finally, just as he got his arms to move and return the embrace she'd given him it was just as she tried to lean back and he internally cringed at realizing he'd acted too late and at the wrong time and was now locked in an strange extended hold with her. Where he apparently was now having the opposite problem as before and now he couldn't get his arms to release his grip on her, though it shouldn't have come as a surprise to him.  
He never wanted to let go of her and she seemed to be the only person who didn't mind being around him or seemed repulsed by his touch.

Closing his eyes, he dropped his arms back at his sides and expected her to immediately move away and possibly even ask why he wouldn't let go of her, but instead she stayed perfectly still with her arms still draped around him and her head resting on his shoulder.

Cracking his eyes back open, he held perfectly still when he realized she must have fallen asleep.

"Bird." He said, clearing his throat and gently patting her side as he spoke, "Perhaps you should lie down now."

With a small giggle, she raised her head and asked, "I fell asleep, didn't I?"

He nodded, with a smile on his lips.

Leaning in she left him entirely stunned and feeling paralyzed when she planted a kiss on his cheek that landed partially on the side of his mouth. "Thank you." She breathed in a drowsy voice.

Her breath smelled of the scotch she'd consumed earlier and the cheese pizza she'd just ate. It wasn't a very pleasant mixture, but from her he didn't mind it at all. He could and would put up with a lot just to be close to her.

When he didn't say anything she gave another smile before she laid down on her bed and seemed to immediately drift off to sleep.

Oswald raised his hand to the side of his face where his skin felt like it was tingling from where her lips touched him.  
He knew she'd intended on kissing him on the cheek and that's mostly where her kiss had landed, but she'd caught the corner of his mouth when she'd leaned in and now he couldn't stop himself from wondering what would have happened if he'd acted quick enough to turn his head just enough where her mouth would have landed fully on his own lips.  
From the way she'd been acting, he was doubting she'd remembered anything that happened when she woke up anyways.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there watching her as she slept curled up on her side, until her phone rang from the bedside table and caused her to stir. Her eyes opened just in time to see him picking up her cellphone.

"Who is it?" She questioned, rubbing her eyes as she strained to keep them open.

"Harvey Dent." Oswald admitted, clutching the phone so tightly in his hands that he thought it might crumble in pieces.

Bird held out her hand but Oswald protested, "It might be wise to speak to him another time. When you're mostly sober."

With a noise that sounded somewhere between a laugh and snort she nodded against her pillow, "Good idea, Oswald."

Just when he went to lay her phone back down it dinged with the voicemail alert and woke her back up enough that she tried to reach for her phone again, but he held it just out of reach and offered, "I'll play the message on speaker."

She nodded, keeping her eye that was open on him as he opened her phone and brought the voicemail up, as he switched it to speakerphone and held the phone between them, she fought to stay awake to hear the message.

" _Hey Starling, it's me. I know you said you wanted to spend today alone, but I think whether this is the date you were actually born or not, it's still your day and that's a good enough reason for celebration. I'm home for the night now, so if you want to stop by or want me to come over… let me know. Happy Birthday."_

Oswald's nose crinkled at the message and his eyes quickly went to where Bird was now wearing a small smile on her lips.

"He calls you Starling?" Oswald practically spat, knowing how much she hated to be called by her name.

"Yeah." She answered, her smile growing as she admitted, "I don't think I've ever liked the way my name sounded until I heard him say it."

"You're drunk." Oswald accused, not wanting to hear or accept what she'd said. It was hard enough seeing that his message had made her smile.

The tone in his voice woke her up some and she raised up on an elbow to look at him when she asked, "Do you even know why I don't like my name?"

In a silent response he shook his head back and forth and was at a loss as to why in their over four years of knowing each other he'd never thought to ask her about it.

"My mom gave me that name." She stated, and Oswald started to nod to the common sense answer until it dawned on him that she meant Martha Wayne.

"You were five when you were adopted though." He said, his voice barely over a whisper.

"I was called a lot of different names in foster care and the orphanages, but no one ever actually gave me a real name." Bird explained, flopping back down on her bed as she sighed and struggled to focus her eyes on the ceiling.  
"There was this pair of starlings that would come and land on my parent's windowsill and my mom loved them; that's how I got my name when I was adopted. One of the first things I remember after moving into Wayne Manor was my mother showing me the birds and I remember saying how pretty they were, they had purple on them it was my favorite color. My mom looked at me and told me that they were beautiful, but nowhere near as beautiful as I was."

Oswald's lips curved up into a smile at the story she told him, normally all of her stories centering at the house she'd grown up had bad endings. It seemed like she'd had more bad memories there than she'd had good ones.

Bird smiled at the memory too and started to drift off to sleep that way, until her eyes opened again and the smile disappeared.

"I was out in the yard playing one day and I found both of the birds on the ground, they were dead. I guess our gardener used some sort of pesticide on the plants and they must have ingested some of it." Bird explained, raising a hand she rubbed her face and sighed, "I hated my name after that; I felt like I was doomed or something."

Her words caused the smile to fall from his lips and he swallowed hard as thought back to the voicemail and he asked, "But you like when he calls you Starling?"

"Mhm." She nodded, turning back onto her side and nuzzling her face into her pillow as she tried to go back to sleep.

Operating under the hope that she wouldn't be able to remember any of this the next day, he deleted the voicemail from her phone and put it on silent before returning it to her bedside table and watching her closely.

"Do you love him?" He finally asked, his voice just loud enough to stir her from slumber.

"Maybe… I think I could love him." She stated, but he didn't miss the hint of a smile on her lips as she spoke and he had a feeling there was a stronger possibility than she was admitting to him, and possibly even to herself.

"I want him to love me though." Bird admitted in her ever present slurred voice for the night, "Wouldn't it be great to be loved? Not in the way that family or even friends care about each other, of course."

His eyebrows lowered as she rambled in her near sleeping state and he started to wish he'd never asked her anything about it in the first place.

"Just to be enough for someone to love would be… lovely." She slurred, and Oswald sat in place waiting to see if she had anything else to say, but soon enough she was fast asleep.

Ever so gently he brought his hand to her face and brushed her tangled brunette waves off her cheek as he softly agreed with a sadness in his voice, "Lovely, indeed."

After one last look at her, he shut off the lamp on her bedside table and made his way out of her apartment with everything she'd said weighing heavily on his mind.

 **~(A couple days later)~**

Bird was sitting at the bar in Fish's club, making out the sheet for the next order of alcohol they'd need to stock their bar. At first they'd been worried that Maroni might choose to no longer deal with them, which would be a huge problem since he controlled the ports and liquor imports to supply all of Gotham.  
But in order to keep the peace with Falcone after their recent scuffle over Oswald's life and on the count of Fish's club made so much money and was one of his biggest buyers, he'd agreed to keep supplying them.

Bird heard someone clear their throat from behind her, but she didn't pay them much attention. It was midday and there were some waiters there preparing for that night along with some of Fish's henchman wandering around.

"Excuse me."

Bird closed her eyes for a minute recognizing the voice as Fish's new umbrella boy named Timothy who seemed so unsure of everything he was doing and had a new question every ten minutes.

When she didn't respond he made sure she'd know he was talking to her as he said, "Miss Bird?"

Dropping her pen to the wooden bar with a thud, she rubbed her eyes as she spun on the barstool and corrected, "It's Bird… just Bird."

"Right." He nodded looking flustered and nervous like she could very well strike him down at any minute, "Bird, sorry."

With a curt nod, she spun back around and started to pick up her pen again but he said, "There's someone here asking to speak to Fish, but I was given orders to not bother her unless-"

Bird blew out a heavy sigh and cursed Fish in her head, after Timothy had been hired on their boss had told him to bring his questions and concerns to Bird since she ' _got along with umbrella boys so_ well' , Bird knew it was a jab at her for being so close with Oswald and then his turning on them.  
Anymore, she hoped when she got to work that Fish would send her out with Butch on assignments because working around the club and crossing paths with her boss all the time was getting to be more than she could take. Anymore working around the club was a grin and bear it sort of situation with all the offhanded remarks and grunt work she'd been tasked with from Fish.

"Lead the way." She cut him off as she slid off the barstool and adjusted the tight fitting dress she'd been forced to wear that day.

Her heels clicked along on the floor as she followed him to Oswald who was standing inside of the door with two men of imposing presence standing back and to either side of him, clearly some of Maroni's henchman.

As she rounded the corner, Oswald's breath hitched in his throat as he saw her. She was in a dark metallic silver dress that landed dangerously high on her thighs and was so form fitted it almost appeared to be painted on, on her feet were a pair of black heels that lifted her to where she was standing a few inches taller than him.  
It wasn't something she'd normally wear, it was too flashy for her taste –it looked like something Fish would wear. That was when it dawned on him that Fish must now be calling the shots when it came to how she dressed at work now.

As startled as she was to see him standing in the club again, she knew she had to play the part like they were enemies now. If anyone saw her being remotely friendly with him and word got back to Fish, she'd probably be killed on the spot.

"Bird." Oswald greeted, his voice a little hoarse as he strained to keep his eyes looking up to her face and not wander down to her scantily dress clad body.

Taking a few steps closer, clearly trying to assert her dominance over him for walking into her territory she raised a hand and snapped her fingers, mimicking the way Fish did and instantly two of her boss's henchman were there to back her up.

"Look what we've got here, boys." She smirked, with a threatening smile on her glossed lips, "A traitor in our midst." Her sentence ended with her tossing her arm up into a hand motion that instructed the men on her side to draw their guns.

In response Oswald's men did the same, and he held up his hands in surrender, "There's no need for violence. We are at peace after all." Eyeing Bird he explained, "I was sent here, personally, by Don Maroni. I have some urgent matters to discuss with Fish Mooney."

It wasn't until he motioned for his men to lower their weapons that Bird nodded at the men on her side to do the same.

"No need for violence?" Bird asked with raised brows, "Yet you brought armed men in here?"

"Well, I imagined my reception here might be less than friendly." He countered, and his jaw tensed as he fought the urge to smile. She looked good, she looked tough –if he didn't know her and know she wouldn't harm him, he could easily see himself being intimidated by the way she was acting.  
He was certain she had nothing to worry about when it came to Fish not trusting her; Bird was playing the part better than he'd ever expected.

Bird looked between the two guards on her side and nodded for them to take the weapons off their visitors, then she stood back and watched as they followed her commands and took it a step farther to pat all three down.  
She couldn't deny having that kind of power, having people there ready to act on her every word was intoxicating. One day, she thought, one day it would be like this all of the time for both her and Oswald; they'd be the ones running the show.

"What's this?" She questioned, as one of the men pulled a black jewelry display box from Oswald's pocket.

"A gift for Ms. Mooney." He stated and watched as Bird opened it to be sure of it's contents.

Closing the flaps back down on the box she looked around at both sets of guards, who looked like they could start throwing punches at a moment's notice.

"Alright then." Bird said, her voice full of authority as she spoke, "No reason we can't be civil here." Her eyes cut to Oswald as she agreed with his earlier sentiment, "We are at peace after all."

"My thoughts exactly." He replied with a nod of respect to Bird.

"Timothy, would you go let Fish know that Mr. Cobblepot is here on behalf of Don Maroni and wishes to speak to her?" She said, and though it was worded as a question, he knew from her tone that she wasn't asking.

Once he walked away, she roughly shoved the box containing the broach he'd brought for Fish back into Oswald's hands as she instructed, "Follow me."

It wasn't long after Oswald took a seat at the table with his henchman standing behind his chair, that Fish descended the stairs and took the seat across from him, with Bird and Timothy standing to either side of her, she dismissed her other two men from the room.

Before a word was spoke between the pair, Oswald slid the gift box across the table to Fish who immediately said in a gruff tone, "You shouldn't have."

"I wanted to make a gesture." He said, with a click of his tongue, "I hope in time that we can be friends."

"Friends…" Fish breathed, her eyes drifting up to the ceiling like she was giving some thought to the idea before she tossed her arms out to the sides and said, "Sure, why not? What's done is done."

With a smile, Oswald replied, "I'm so glad you feel that way. Don Maroni wants us to clarify terms."

With a strained smile that didn't look even the least bit friendly Fish said, "Well, It's business as usual. Maroni still has his drugs and his unions, he pays tariffs for the ports and if he needs favors from the cops or the mayor, Don Falcone will consider it. Oh, and of course the families still share Arkham."

Nodding with approval Oswald added, "And there is to be no blood spilled on either side… not a drop."

"Hmm…" she breathed, looking to the side with a look of disappointment, her lips curved up into a malicious smile as she looked back to him and argued, "Maybe just a drop."

Letting out an airy laugh at her words, Oswald shook his head and waved his index finger back and forth in sync with the several clicks of his tongue against the roof of his mouth. Bird side-eyed the table when Fish started to laugh along with him, it was clear the pair hated each other and she could feel the tension building from where she was standing.

"Look at you!" Fish exclaimed to her former employee before turning to the side and saying, "Timothy, do you know this fellow used to have your job; carried my umbrella and thought it an honor. Now look at him, has a seat at the table."

Bird managed to keep a stone expression on her face, but it was a struggle to not shoot Oswald a warning look when he started to antagonize Fish.  
"Things change, ay? I've been blessed."

"Perhaps I should open your gift?" She said as picked up the box and opened it, letting out a surprised gasp at what she found inside.

"My goodness…" She breathed, as she removed the sharp pin from the broach and commented, "That is beautiful. Now I feel awful, I didn't get you anything."

Oswald shook his head back forth, showing that he didn't expect anything from her and Bird watched closely when she saw her boss was still holding onto the large metal pin. Though it didn't seem to concern Oswald much.

That was until she stabbed the pin into the back of his hand and the atmosphere of the entire room changed. With his non injured hand Oswald motioned for his men to not react and in response neither Bird nor Timothy made a move either.

Bird watched as Fish finally removed the pin from his hand and licked the end of it clean as Oswald squirmed in pain and held onto his hand which was now throbbing.

"Mmm." Fish said as she got the last drop of his blood off the pin, "Sweet."

"That was uncalled for." He hissed through his teeth.

"I brought you into my family and I treated you like a son and you betrayed me."

"For which I suffered."

"Not enough. See, when I order some fool killed. I expect him to stay that way."

In a strained voice Oswald reminded her, "Your boss, Don Falcone, expressly said-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. He wants peace. He's the only reason why your ass is still alive and if I were you, I would pray for his good health. Because remember… things change." Fish said, her voice picking up volume with the more she said.

As a final display of disrespect to his former boss Oswald laughed at her threat, and it outraged Fish but her face didn't show it.

"Thank you for the gift." Fish said, keeping her tone calm but the look in her eyes showed she was planning something.  
She looked down as she stood up to hide the smirk on her face, she knew exactly how to get under his skin and injure him more than the bleeding wound she'd left on his hand.

"Speaking of gifts…" She said, with a smile as she walked behind Bird and rested her hands on the young brunette's bare shoulders she continued, "What do you think of the dress I got for Bird?"

"Hmm?" Fish questioned when he remained silent, "Fits her rather well, don't you think?" She asked in a low voice as she kept her eyes on Oswald and seductively ran her hands down Bird's sides before letting her hands rest on her hips.

Though Oswald tried to appear unaffected by the scene playing out in front of him, it would have been easier for him to stomach another stab to his hand than watch Fish touch her like that. Not to mention the way the other men in the room were now staring at Bird like they were starving dogs and she was a juicy piece of meat –he'd kill them all for that, he thought to himself. One by one, he'd kill all of them.

Fish's smile grew as she watched him trying to contain any sort of reaction to what was playing out, though his darkened cheeks were betraying him.

"Yes…" Fish breathed in a quieter voice, as she slowly walked around to the front of her without ever fully removing her hands, "I think she looks exquisite."

Oswald cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, knowing this display was her attempt to get a rise out of him and he hated her for it.

"You know, Oswald… since you left us, Bird has really stepped up." Fish smirked as she spoke and glanced back at him, "Always here when I need her, always willing to help… to go above and beyond."

Turning back to Bird and trailing a hand down the side of her face, Fish ended the caress by pulling Birds face forward just enough so their lips would brush when she whispered, "Then again, she always was my favorite."

Oswald's hands balled up into fists as he watched his former boss lean in farther and press her mouth against Birds, initiating the start of a long, deep, passionate kiss that had every person in the room completely fixated on the two women and seemed to last for an eternity.

As she finally pulled back, Oswald could clearly see Fish run her tongue over Bird's bottom lip before she fully pulled away.

Bird avoided Oswald's eyes as he stared at her, feeling like he'd been glued to the seat and paralyzed in a place where he couldn't look away no matter how much he wanted to.

"Mmm, strawberry…" Fish hummed, looking back to Oswald as she commented on Bird's lip gloss choice.

Overcome with rage at what he'd just witnessed, Oswald slammed his injured hand down on the table and didn't even feel the pain from the stab wound anymore. His words came out somewhere in the range between a hiss and an inhuman growl when he said, "I'll just be going then. Convey my respects to your Don."

"Likewise." Fish commented, her eyes locking with his as she continued, "Peace… friend."

With that she turned her attention back to Bird and forcefully claimed her mouth in another passionate kiss, wrapping her arms around the younger woman and pulling her body tightly against her own. Hungrily and fiercely moving her mouth and tongue with Bird's as if she were trying to devour her entirely.  
And though he wished he was already outside and didn't have to witness round two of Fish making it abundantly clear that she could do things with Bird that he'd only dreamed of, he still found himself unable to look away. That was until he saw his friend's hands and arms snaking around Fish, and matching the savagery of the kiss and he couldn't stomach it any longer.  
He wanted to scream at her to stop, but he knew she didn't really have a choice in the matter and Fish was just using Bird to get to him, while his friend played the part he'd asked her to and pretend to be loyal to Fish.

Violently grabbing the box with the broach and pin inside, he stood up and motioned for his men to follow him as he rushed towards the door.

* * *

 **A/N- I know this chapter was pretty much all Bird x Oswald, but I hope my Bird x Dent fans enjoyed it as well! Harvey will be back soon, I promise. ^_^**

 **Thank you so much to Miss E Charlotte, MzzLightwood, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Love. Fiction. 2016 and to Pie Issue 76 -for the reviews on last chapter and for all of the support!**

 **You can follow my on Tumblr (sagelondyn) to see edits I've made for this story.**

 **Please don't forget to take a few moments to leave a review and let me know what you all thought of the chapter.**


	23. For Better or Worse

**XXIII**

 _"He was the last thread suspending me in the light. Without him, I can feel myself spiraling downward, falling to a place where I can no longer pull myself back up." ― Marie Lu, The Young Elites_

* * *

After instructing Selina Kyle to wait in an outer hallway of Wayne Manor, Jim found his way into the study where Bruce, Alfred and Bird were all waiting on him.

"Morning." He greeted, with a nod to the trio.

"Yes, it is morning, Jim." Bird commented, her lips pressing into a thin line as she paused for dramatic effect before adding, "I typically work nights, you know. So when I get woke up at the crack of dawn to you calling me it sort of throws my entire day off."

"It was hardly the crack of dawn." He argued with her before defending, "And I wanted to speak to all of you together, it's important."

They listened as Jim told them that a witness had come forward from the night Thomas and Martha Wayne had been killed, someone who saw the face of the shooter just before he put his mask on. He told them of his hope that they'd let her stay at Wayne Manor until the trial.

"She sat down with a sketch artist and this is what we've got now." Jim said as he opened a folder and pulled the sketch out, looking it over before he sat down next to Bruce and handed him the paper. "This is the man who killed your parents."

Taking the paper from him and holding it with shaky fingers Bruce looked the sketch over as Jim questioned, "Do you recognize him, Bruce?"

"No." He said, with tears in his eyes as he spoke and handed the sketch off to Bird who also agreed she'd never seen the man in the sketch before either.

"What's her name?" Bruce questioned, curious about who'd been in the alley and saw the entire thing happen.

"Selina Kyle." Jim answered.

"I've heard that name before." Bird realized, though she wasn't sure she could put a face to the name.

"Do you believe her?" Bruce asked Detective Gordon.

"Yes, I do." He answered.

"Are you sure?" Bird questioned walking over to him and handing the sketch back.

"Yes." Jim asserted, his eyebrows lowering as he questioned, "Do you have a reason not to?"

"I don't know her." Bird shrugged, "But I know it's tough out there on the streets and some people are willing to say or do anything to get a roof over their heads and a couple of hot meals."

"She's putting herself in a lot of danger by coming forward with this. I believe her." He argued.

"And you want her to live here with us, do you?" Alfred questioned, "A common street criminal?"

"She's hardly older than Bruce. She's just a kid who's seen too much… this is for her safety. The GCPD is full of moles-"

"Right and how long would you have us put her up then?"

"I don't know." Jim said in a quiet voice and faint shrug to match.

"No, the answer is no." Alfred declined. He wanted the real killer of Thomas and Martha brought to justice, but not if it would put Bruce in immense danger to do so.  
He couldn't justify that.

"Alfred!" Bruce exclaimed, looking over to him but he was met with a stern look before Alfred looked to Jim and said, "Her being here would put Master Bruce in great danger."

"He's not wrong." Bird agreed looking to Jim as she asked, "Can't we put her up in a hotel or something?"

"It wouldn't be safe." Jim argued, "This is our best chance at keeping her safe."

"And she's the best chance at finding who killed our parents." Bruce said looking at Bird and then to Alfred, before he turned to Jim and asked, "Isn't she?"

"Yes, I believe she is."

"Then she can stay, as long as it takes." Bruce said as he stood up and started out the doorway to meet Selina.

Seeing that Alfred definitely wasn't fond of having her stay at the house, Jim sighed as he stood up and walked over to him. "Look, I know this is a lot, but I'm doing everything I can."

"How long will she be here?" Bird questioned, it was obvious she wasn't entirely on board with the plan, but she also didn't seem as opposed to it as Alfred was.

"I don't have a time frame… but Montoya, Allen and I are meeting with an A.D.A they trust this afternoon." Jim confided in the pair.

"Oh?" Alfred questioned with a look of amusement on his face, "A trustworthy lawyer in Gotham?"

"Look, if we find this guy then we're going to need her. She'll have to take the stand during a trial and it's not going to be easy. Witnesses back out all of the time; the ones who stick it out do so because they care about the victims." Jim said as he glanced around the room and then down to his watch to see how late he was going to be reporting in for work that day.

"Right, then we'll do our best to be nice to her, won't we?" Alfred breathed under his breath before announcing that he was going to make up one of the guest rooms.

As he left the room, Jim looked to Bird and reminded her, "No one can know why she's here."

"Really Jim?" Bird asked, cocking her head to the side as she spoke, "Who am I going to tell?"

He'd hesitated to even let Bird know what was going on, but he decided to bank on the fact that she was protective over Bruce and bring her in on the situation.

"I've got to go, I'm already late for work." He said, giving her a nod before he turned to leave.

Bird waited till he got just outside of the doorway before she called out, "Jim?"

"Yeah?" He asked poking his head back into the room to look at her.

"This A.D.A you're meeting later… what's their name?"

"They didn't tell me." He admitted, his eyes squinting slightly as he gave her a suspicious look and questioned, "Why?"

"Just wondering." She replied with a small shrug, before she turned and headed out the doors Alfred had gone through just moments before.

 **~(That afternoon)~**

With a heavy sigh, Bird pulled into a parking spot and shut her car off. Leaning back against the headrest of her seat, she rubbed her hands over her face as the effects from lack of sleep were finally starting to catch up with her.

She'd barely been asleep for a few hours when Jim had called and said he needed to speak to her about something concerning the murder of her parents and asked her to meet him at Wayne Manor.  
From there she'd hung around the house for a while to see how Selina and her brother were going to get along and then just as she'd gotten back home with the intention of sleeping most of the afternoon away she'd gotten a call from Harvey asking if there was any way she could swing by his place and bring him a folder that he'd accidently left there.

Picking the folder up from her passenger seat, she exited her car and headed into the building, breezing past and completely ignoring one of the receptionists who asked if they could help her with anything.

Just as she turned onto the hallway where Harvey's office was located, she saw Montoya and Allen walking out with Jim following a few steps behind him.

The two major crimes unit detectives gave her a questioning look as they passed her and in response, she flashed them a smile and continued on her way only coming to a stop when Jim stepped in front of her and blocked her path.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, "Is everything okay?"

Pushing her sunglasses up to rest on the top of her head she nodded, "Yeah… why wouldn't it be?"

Bringing her over to the side of the hallway so anyone who wanted past them could get by, he asked in a hushed tone, "What are you doing here?" His mind going back to earlier that morning when she'd asked him what assistant district attorney he was going to meeting later.

"Just dropping something off." Bird answered his question even though she didn't owe him an explanation; then she gave him a questioning look of her own, before walking past him and into Harvey's office.

Harvey was sitting at his desk looking over the sketch the detectives had left with him of the person Jim's witness said had shot and killed the Wayne's. Hearing someone enter his office, he looked up to see Bird.

Laying the sketch face down on his desk, he saw the folder in her hand and gave his signature smile as he stood up and gratefully said, "You are a life saver. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Bird said smiling as he walked over to her and took the folder from her hands. Quickly opening it and scanning the contents, he then laid it on the desk behind him.

"Oh!" Bird exclaimed reaching into her pocket and taking out the spare key to his door she handed it to him and said, "I forgot to put the key back under the floor mat… which by the way is one of the first places someone wanting to break in would look."

Leaning back against his deck he nodded in agreement, "I do need a better hiding place, but truthfully if someone wants to get in there bad enough they'll find a way."

"Agreed… but that doesn't mean you have to make it easy on them." She countered with a small laugh, as she looked past him to the papers out on his desk and could just make out the outline of the sketch Jim had showed her that morning through the back of the paper.

She'd had a feeling that the A.D.A, Jim was meeting with that day might be Harvey considering he was probably the only honest lawyer in Gotham, but a small part of her had hoped it wouldn't be him.  
She didn't know who'd killed her parents, but she knew enough to be positive that it wasn't some everyday mugging turned murder. They'd been directly targeted and who ever had given the order to have them eliminated was still out there somewhere and it made her a little nervous to know he was getting involved with the investigation.

"So…" Harvey breathed, eyeing her for a moment before he admitted, "You know, the strangest thing happened yesterday. The manager of the security company showed up with the tape of the jewelry store robbery. Came right to me."

"Really?" Bird asked, with a coy smile.

"Yeah, he even made a full statement." Harvey explained, but she couldn't tell from the look on his face whether he was going to be mad at her all over again for interfering or if he was appreciative for the help that he desperately needed on the case.

Remembering back to the night they'd last spoken about it when he said that something like that would only happen in a perfect world, she gave him a small smile as she said, "Maybe it's a perfect world after all?"

"Or… it might have had something to do with you pulling some sort of strings, even after I asked you to stay out of it." He argued, but he didn't seem to be angry about it.

Harvey reached out and took Bird's hand before he pulled her closer to him and rested his hands on her hips, leaning in he pressed a kiss to her lips. Smiling against his mouth as she pulled back, Bird said, "I couldn't stay out of it, after I brought you that tape –you made it sound like I'd only made things worse and I just wanted to fix it."

He blew out a heavy breath before resting his forehead against hers and saying, "I owe you a thank you, the security footage makes getting a conviction for the robbers a sure thing. I just can't have you interfering with anything like this again, especially when I shouldn't have even talked about it with you in the first place."

"You have to talk to me about your job though." Bird reasoned, giving a small half-smile when she added, "I've barely seen you this past week after all. You're always working."

"It won't always be like this." He assured her, absent mindedly rubbing his hands up and down her sides as he spoke, "I've had a lot on my plate, but things should be calming down soon… and you can't put it all on me. You've been going into work about the time I'm going to bed."

Nodding Bird said, "And it's happening again tonight, our usual bartender is out sick and I've been filling in… plus my boss has been on a rampage since her newest employee disappeared." She sighed without even giving much thought to what she'd been saying. It had been a few days since Timothy stopped showing up to work and Fish had been more unbearable than usual with the unexplained absence of her umbrella boy.

"Disappeared?" Harvey questioned with a concerned look on his face.

Her brown eyes widened for a second before she composed her expression and shrugged, "Not disappeared exactly, he just stopped showing up for work. It's not a big deal, some people just can't cut it in the nightclub business."

She could tell by look on his face that he wasn't entirely buying her story, so in an attempt to shift the focus off of her she asked, "Why didn't you tell me you were meeting with Jim Gordon today? Especially since it has to do with my parents murders?"

Now it was his turn to try and cover up the shocked look that fell over his face.

"How did you-" He started to ask, but she quickly cut him off.

"I passed him in the hallway and you've got the same sketch on your desk that he showed me earlier today."

Glancing over his shoulder, he looked back to Bird with a hint of a smile toying at a single corner of his mouth when he said, "You are very perceptive."

"One should always be aware of their surroundings." She shrugged, reaching up as she smoothed his tie out and held onto the open sides of his suit jacket.

He watched her intently and waited until she looked up and their eyes met before he admitted, "Honestly, I didn't know how much you knew about everything. I didn't know if any of the detectives had talked to you about it yet."

"It's okay." She dismissed with a small shrug. Placing her hands against his chest, she raised up and gave him a soft kiss before pulling back and saying in an almost whisper, "I need to get back home."

But as she tried to step back from where she was standing his hands landed back on her hips and kept her in place as he offered, "If you want to hang around for a little while, I can probably take my lunch break soon."

She bit down on the side of her tongue as he gave her one of his smiles that was almost capable of getting her to agree to anything.

"I've missed you, but I need sleep more than I need food."

"I understand." He nodded with the smile still on his lips, "Thank you again for bringing that folder."

"No problem, it gave me an excuse to come see you." She reasoned, giving a shrug like it wasn't a big deal but the truth was she'd been missing spending time with him and even if it was only for a few minutes, the time was worth losing sleep for.

Her words put a smile on his lips as he leaned down and kissed her goodbye, saying that he'd call her later that night or the next day.

After leaving Harvey's office, Bird checked her phone for any missed calls or texts as she made her way down the hallway towards the exit. Just as she reached the doors, she heard quickly approaching footsteps behind her and with a sigh she breathed, "It's rude to spy on people, you know."

Jim barely stopped the door from hitting him in the face when Bird breezed through the door after scolding him. She'd caught him off guard with the remark, with her nose buried in her phone he'd thought she didn't spot him in the alcove of the hallway he'd ducked into.

"You and Harvey Dent, huh?" He called after her, as he quickened his pace down the cement stairs to catch up with her.

Turning around to face him she replied with raised eyebrows and a slight look of annoyance, "Yes, for quite some time now."

There was a distrustful look on his face when he questioned, "Why didn't you say anything?"

With a laugh, Bird looked down and scuffed the toe of her boots against the sidewalk before she arched a brow and sarcastically replied, "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't realize we were at the point in our friendship where we discussed our significant others."

"Bird-"

"So tell me, Jim… how is Barbara?" She continued on with her sarcastic and irritation laced tone, and now his patience with her was wearing thin.

"I wouldn't know." He admitted, their eyes meeting when he explained, "She left without telling me… all I got was a note."

"Seriously?" She asked, and he gave a nod in response.

Her lips pressed into a thin line and the mocking tone was gone from her voice as she quietly replied, "Sorry."

Not wanting to talk about his girlfriend any longer, he ignored the sentiment and questioned, "What you trying to accomplish?"

"Excuse me?" Bird exclaimed, her voice coming out in a slight gasp as she stared at him with her mouth hanging slightly open.

"Come on." He breathed, as if he already knew exactly what was going on, "You just so happen to be involved with one of the only honest lawyers in Gotham? Something's at play here, so what is it? Did your people put you up to this-"

"My people?" She asked in an anger laced raised voice. Pulling in a breath between her teeth, she lowered her voice to deter the stares from a few people who'd directed their curious eyes in their direction. She thought back to when she'd been with Liza and ran into Harvey and she'd also thought Bird had ulterior motives when it came to him. "Why does everyone just assume I'm using him for something?"

"Like it's really that far of a jump to come to that conclusion when it comes to someone like…" His voice trailed off and he ran his tongue over his dry lips.

"For what, Jim? For someone like me?" She asked, stepping up to him until their faces were just inches apart and added in a hushed tone, "Funny, apparently you only have a problem with my being a criminal when it doesn't directly benefit you. How quickly you forget that it wasn't so long ago I went to Falcone and put my neck on my line to save you."

"And I never asked you to." He pointed out, keeping the same uncompromising look on his face he'd been wearing for the last several minutes. As if he already had her completely figured out.

"You should be careful how you treat people. From what I heard everyone at the station fled when Victor Zsasz came after you, so it seems as though you don't have many friends in this city. Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to look down on me." Her voice came out with a snakes hiss and her sentence ended with her spinning on her heels and continuing the trek back to her car, but Jim caught back up with her before she got there.

"I never asked for your help, but I am thankful for what you said and did to help me." He explained, as he walked around to get in front of her when she refused to turn back and look at him. Glancing around them to make sure no one was within ear shot of them he reminded her, "But I did watch you kill someone, execution style at that, a single bullet through the brain and you didn't even blink."

"I did what I had to do." She defended, her brown eyes narrowed both from anger and the harsh sunlight beaming down on them from the blue sky, "If Roy had lived and told Fish I was even the slightest bit reluctant in bringing you in, then it would have been my head on the chopping block. I made a split second decision and whether you want to admit it or not, it was the right one and we're both still alive because of the choices I made that day. I don't regret taking the shot and if I had to, I'd do it all over again."

He was silent as he stared at her, unable to think of what to say next. It was true that his still being alive was due in a big part to her, but knowing she could take a life without feeling the slightest bit of guilt over it sat wrong on his stomach.

"You told me once that you thought we all have both good and bad inside of us, so why are you all of a sudden so convinced that I'm all bad?" Bird questioned.

"I never said you were all bad.." Jim defended, "I don't think you're a bad person, I just think you've taken about every single wrong path you've came across in your life."

"Not that it's any of your business, but I really like him. He's handsome and tall and understanding… and he makes me feel like…" Her voice trailed off and she gave a weak shrug before mumbling, "No, it's really none of your business."

Walking around her car she unlocked her door and started to open it when Jim asked in a less patronizing tone than he'd been used with his earlier questions, "You told me before that you're always playing a part… what part are you playing now?"

"Today?" Bird asked, pausing for effect as she lowered her sunglasses back over her eyes and said, "The caring girlfriend, who just brought her boyfriend some paperwork he needed –instead of being at home in bed sleeping before I work tonight."  
Opening her car door up the rest of the way, she shot him a look that he couldn't see from behind her dark shades as she countered his question with a snarky tone, "And apparently today, you're playing the part of the judgmental ass."

With that she got into her car and started it, before quickly backing out of her spot and speeding off, leaving a stunned Jim Gordon still standing where she'd left him.

 **~(Later that night)~**

Bird stood behind the bar at Fish's club as she straightened out the display wall of decorative glass bottles with different colored liquid inside and her boss sat at the bar looking over the book of total sells from the night before.

Hearing footsteps, Fish looked up to see Butch walking towards them.

"Everything good?" She questioned.

Holding up a cellphone he nodded, "Right as rain. You sure you want to go through with this boss?"

Bird glanced over her shoulder at them, it wasn't very often that Butch would second guess anything Fish said.

"Don't you go getting scared on me now, Butch." Fish replied, pointing a finger at him before she turned her attention back to the book in front of her.

They'd hired what was left of Nikolai's men to break a bomber named Ian Hargrove out of Blackgate Penitentiary, and force him to work for them. Fish knew that breaking Falcone down enough to make him step away would have to be a step by step, well thought out, systematic plan and once the Russians were able to break into the largest cash reserve the Don had, in a vault from the old armory –it would not only be a shot to the body; but it would also start to make the people working under him wonder if he truly was losing his touch.

The trio turned their attention to the left when they heard one of the side entrance doors open and moments later Oswald hobbled into view with a smile on his face.

"Oswald, you're back." Fish stated, sliding off the bar stool she'd been sitting on.

Oswald gave a small chuckle at the look of surprise on her face, before he glanced over to Bird who was wearing another dress he was sure Fish had picked out for her, he started to look away from her until he saw the necklace hanging from her neck –it was the necklace he'd gotten for her.

He glanced down to the floor with a smile on his face, before quickly covering up the expression and forcing himself to stay on track with why he'd shown up there.

He'd had Fish's latest umbrella boy, Timothy, abducted and then terrorized him until he admitted that Fish had someone working for her that was close to Falcone. After a little more digging around and some use of common sense he'd managed to track it all back to Liza and upon breaking into her apartment and confronting her, he knew she'd been planted there by Fish.

Despite his distaste for his former boss, even he had to admit the brilliance of the plan, especially when he'd saw for himself how fond Falcone was of the young woman.

"I'm starting to think you enjoy being hurt." Fish taunted, causing Oswald to laugh again as he said, "I was just passing by; thought I'd stop by and say hello."

"Well, you said it." She spat, "No why are you here?"

His head dropped forward some and he looked at her from under the hair hanging down on his face he answered, "Honestly, I'm just trying to be friendly."

With that he leaned forward and breathed in deeply to sniff the perfume that Fish was wearing, startled and repulsed from the intrusion, Fish leaned back away from him and Butch stepped forward protectively in case Oswald tried to harm her in anyway.

Pulling back, Oswald hummed, "Hmm, lilacs… you smell good."

"You don't." Fish countered without missing a beat as she kept the revolted look on her face.

Bird's eyebrows lowered in confusion as she stared at her friend and wondered what he was doing. Then it started to dawn on her that Fish had given Liza a bottle of her own perfume to wear and mixed with the knowledge that timothy had recently seemed to vanish into thin air, it seemed Oswald had been up to a few things he hadn't told her about. Then again, she'd withheld the information about Liza from him since the beginning.

Oswald let out a rather loud laugh before he looked over at Bird and commented, "Of course, I've always preferred the scent of jasmine to lilacs."

She raised her eyebrows as she looked at him with the recognition that one of the main scents in her favorite perfume was jasmine.

The dumbfounded look on Butch's face grew as he looked from Oswald over to Bird and then back to Fish.

Oswald looked between the trio who were all staring at him like he belonged locked up in a psych ward, and let out another laugh as he called out, "Well, goodbye then. Sorry you're still grumpy with me, but you know…"

His voice trailed off and he looked over in Bird's direction as he added, "Reaching out in friendship is never wrong."

With that he turned and left out of the exact same doors he'd recently entered though.

"Man, that dude is creepy." Butch said, blowing out a breath as he shook his head and stared in the direction Oswald had left in.

"Forget him; he's nothing." Fish dismissed, sitting back down as she looked across the bar to read the look on Bird's face, but her indifferent expression gave nothing away.  
Feeling her boss's eyes boring into her, Bird nodded and agreed out loud, "He's nothing."

* * *

 **~(A week later)~**

Bird rushed down the stairs at Fish's club when she heard glass breaking downstairs and her boss yelling at someone, as she reached the bottom of the stairs she observed one of he newer henchman hunched down onto the floor holding onto his bleeding face with the remnants of a shattered tequila bottle on the floor around him.

"Fish, what's wrong?" Bird asked, her eyes cutting over to the side as Butch emerged from the storage room back behind the bar.

Pulling in a few hissing breaths between her teeth and trying to get a large enough handle on her anger that she could have a conversation, Fish looked to her youngest employee.  
"The truck we gave to the Russians to load Falcone's money into, these fools forgot to plant the bomb before I handed the keys over last night!" She angrily said, turning around and slamming her hands down on the bar as he nodded to an open box and added, "And this! This is what they bring me to fix it."

The hope was to have the Russians successfully steal Falcone's money, after which they were going to take out what was left of Nikolai's men and keep the money for when Falcone was pushed out –but if things went wrong, they were going to ignite a bomb on the truck.

Walking over to the bar, Bird watched as Butch lifted a small oblong device from the box and looked it over before he asked, "What is it?"

"It was all the supply store had!" The man still cowering on the floor said as he debated the risk of trying to stand up inside of his head. "It screws into an arrow shaft. It's highly explosive, the guy said just one of them would be enough to rip the truck into pieces."

"Wait, there's a bomb in here?" Butch asked pointing with his other hand to the device he was still holding. When he was met by a nod, he carefully laid it back down in the box and said, "Never seen that before."

"Okay." Fish said, gritting her teeth and realizing this was now the only option they had. Turning to Butch she said, "This is all we've got, Butch you're gonna have to take the truck out with this if the Russians get compromised."

"Archery?" He asked with a booming laugh, "Boss, does it look like I go deer hunting in my spare time?"  
His laugh came to an abrupt stop when Fish whipped her head around to look at him with a fiery stare.

Looking over to the small group of trusted employees who'd ventured into the room when they heard the commotion she yelled, "Does anyone know how to use a bow and arrow?"

"I do."

Everyone looked at Bird who seemed rather timid from all the attention as she stood next to the bar.

Clearing her throat and sounding much more confident than she did seconds ago, she explained, "I've studied and practiced archery. I'm pretty good."

"You can do this?" Fish asked, walking up to the youngest employee on her payroll and looking her over. She knew when it came to guns that Bird was nearly always a perfect shot and she was also pretty handy in a knife fight, but this was something they'd only have one shot at and if she blew it, everything they'd risked would have been for nothing.

"Assuming something goes wrong and we have to blow the truck and money up, I'll need a few other things to pick off Nikolai's men if they aren't killed in the explosion... but, yes. I can do this." Bird nodded.

"This is a very important task." Fish reminded her, "If it all goes to hell, you will have one shot at this. One opportunity-"

"I said I can do it." Bird cut her off, her head cocking slightly to the side as she added, "Plus, it looks like I'm your only option. You're just going to have to trust me."

After staring her down for a hard minute, Fish had to agree. If she was the only one who knew anything about archery than Bird was indeed her one and only option.

Pointing a finger in her face she said in a low and gravelly voice, "If you screw this up…"

Her open ended threat hung in the air before she snapped her fingers at the employee who was just getting to his feet from the floor and ordered Bird, "Get him a list of everything you'll need."

 **~()~**

It was later that afternoon that Bird pulled up outside Harvey's office building and shut her car off. Laying in her backseat, hidden out of sight under a blanket was everything she needed to save the day if something went wrong when the Russians were set to move the money in a few hours.

Rather than spending the spare time between now and then around the club where Fish kept shooting her disbelieving and threatening looks and her other employees looked at her like she was already a dead person, she'd decided to get lunch and then spend some time with Harvey before going to the armory site.

She made sure all of her doors were locked after getting out of her car, before heading into the building.

Just as she reached Harvey's office she heard voices inside and at first she was going to just leave, assuming he was busy in a meeting until she noticed the door was open a crack and she peeked inside to see his meeting was with Dick Lovecraft, who was accompanied by a handful of his own lawyers.

Not able to put a stop to her curiosity, she continued to spy on the meeting from her vantage point through the barely open door.

"That old song again?" Dick laughed, "You will never prove fraud. You know that and I know that."

"Fraud charges are only part of it." Harvey announced, pausing to flip his coin up in the air before catching it perfectly and opening his mouth to explain, but Dick didn't give him the chance.

"For what then? Jaywalking?"

After another flip of his two headed coin, Harvey said, "Conspiracy to commit murder."

"Murder?" He laughed, speaking in a belittling and mocking voice, "So tell me Dent, who did I kill?"

Bird's jaw tensed upon hearing the way he was talking down to Harvey, like he was so far beneath him that he didn't deserve to even be breathing the same air –let alone sitting together in the same room.  
She'd never cared much for Dick Lovecraft, and she wasn't alone in that feeling. He was someone that her father butted heads with all of the time, but even knowing that she'd never considered he might be involved in her parents deaths.

"Thomas and Martha Wayne." Harvey said, keeping his tone polite even though he was being treated like something Dick would have scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

"Oh come on…" Dick laughed, glancing over his shoulder to his attorneys who laughed along with him.

"I have an eyewitness that can tie you to the crime. You and all the others involved." Harvey pointed an accusing finger at him as he spoke.

"That's absurd." Dick argued.

Laying his coin down with a clink against the polished wooden surface of his desk, Harvey stood up and crossed around his desk, sitting on the edge as he handed over a paper and tried to persuade into an admission of guilt, "Help yourself out here, Dick. Think about your options… this is going to get ugly."

Picking a pen up from beside him, he held it out for Dick to take and sign the paper.

But Dick wasn't going to have any part of it, in his eyes it wasn't even valid enough to hand to his lawyers for their opinions. Instead, he crumped the paper up into a ball and threw it at Harvey –hitting him square in the chest.

"You're a fool." Dick teased, adding insult to injury, "And you have no idea who or what you're even dealing with."

In a split second, Harvey's composed demeanor changed to one of rage as he jumped up from where he'd been sitting and grabbed onto Dick's shoulder with his hand as he growled, "Don't you ever threaten me!"

Leaning in closer his entire face contorted into a look that didn't even appear human anymore, and his voice grew even deeper and more distorted behind his barred teeth as he threatened, "I will rip you open."

The entire room fell into a dead silence, before Harvey let go of him and stood back up. Every last trace of anger gone as fast as it had appeared, straightening out his tie he calmly and civilly said, "It was good to see you again, Dick."

Bird stepped backwards away from the door until her back landed flat against the wall opposite from his door.  
She'd seen him go from normal, to angry and then back again in the blink of an eye a few times, but she'd never seen him fly off the handle like that.

In those few seconds when he was lost in a fit of fury that she felt like she was looking at a stranger; even with all the things she'd seen –as fast at his pleasant mood had escalated and then went back to normal was scary.  
In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder how he might react when he learned she was actually a part of the Falcone Crime Family. What if his hatred of criminals and the corrupt ran so deeply that he'd turn on her, maybe even hurt her if his wrath ran deep enough.

Letting out a shaky breath, she swallowed hard and decided now wasn't the best time for her to be dropping by his office and she wanted to get out of there before he spotted her.

Before she got the chance, the door to the office opened up the rest of the way and Dick came to a stop when he saw her.

"Miss Wayne…" He greeted, for a moment wondering if she'd had a hand in what had just happened, it was no secret that he didn't get along with Thomas Wayne –until he saw the way she was standing with her back flattened against the wall and the hues of confusion and alarm in her brown eyes.  
It was clear that she was just as baffled and startled by Harvey's outburst as he was.

Her mouth hung open slightly and so many thoughts raced through her head that she couldn't find anything to say back. The best she could do in her astonished stated was repeat the last thing she'd heard Harvey say from the office and in an unsure tone she replied, "It's good to see you again, Dick."

His expression spread into one of confusion and Bird seemed just as taken aback from her own words as he was and gave a helpless shrug to let him know she had no idea why she'd said that either.

"You too." He replied, eyeing her for another few seconds before turning and hurrying after his lawyers that were already half down the hallway, muttering something under his breath that she couldn't quite make out, but she was almost positive she heard him use the word 'lunatic'.  
Though at this point she wasn't sure if he was talking about her or Harvey, or possibly even the both of them.

Once he was out the way she had a clear view into the office where Harvey was standing behind his desk, staring back at her. Both of them with a deer in the headlights look on their faces.

For a moment she considered possibly turning and simply walking away, at this point she had no idea what to say to him, but she doubted they'd have much time to discuss what happened before she'd have to leave for the armory; suddenly dropping by to see her boyfriend seemed like the worst idea in the world.

"I didn't know you were stopping by." Harvey called out to her, as his lips curved up into a smile and he internally hoped she hadn't been there long enough to witness what had just happened. Crossing back around his desk, he walked towards the door and she cleared her throat as she said, "I just dropped by on my break, but I should probably start heading back. I'll call you later though."

Turning she started to walk away until he stopped her with a gentle hold on her arm, silently his hand slid down her arm until he grabbed her hand and led her into his office and closed the door behind them.

"I take it you've been here a while?" Harvey asked her, watching her closely as he spoke.

Bird's eyes drifted down to where he still had a hold on her hand and she admitted, "A little while. You know, I don't much care for Lovecraft either, but ripping him to pieces seems a bit excessive and would be incredibly messy."

The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile at her response, but he could easily tell she didn't seem as comfortable around him as she normally did.

"I'm sorry." He apologized, "You shouldn't have had to see that."  
"I have no tolerance for people like him and he had the audacity to threaten me." Harvey added, shaking his head in disbelief over the entire situation.

When she stayed quiet, he became increasingly aware of the sinking feeling in his stomach.  
He knew she'd been abused in her past and he was more than aware of how his outward display of immense anger might have upset her, possibly even instilled a fear of him.

"Hey…" He breathed, his voice soft as he leaned down and got her to look at him, "That was just… well, bottom line it shouldn't have happened, but you should know I would never hurt you."

Her mind went back to thoughts of the night they'd gotten into a fight and she stepped into the doorway and thought for a brief moment he was actually still going to try to slam the door shut on her.  
Though, she was in no place to judge she thought. As it was she'd dropped by to see him on her way to possibly blow up a truck full of money and kill a handful of men.

Letting out the breath she didn't even know she'd been holding, she looked back down to their connected hands and moved hers so that their fingers were intertwined and clutched onto him rather tightly as she nodded, "I know."

"Then why are you being so quiet?" He questioned, his stare intent on her as he waited for her to look back up and reestablish eye contact with him.

Their eyes met and she answered, "I just have a lot on my mind… I didn't even know Lovecraft was a suspect, and what witness were you talking about? Jim's witness?"

Clearly looking relieved by how she was staying by him and choosing not to dwell on his outburst, Harvey explained, "This is what the meeting with him was about. We're using the idea of his witness to rattle some cages, no names and no paper trail. Dick isn't really a suspect, but for all we know –he or someone close to him could have had a hand in what happened."

"You're just trying to stir the pot then?" Bird asked, "Get people scared so they'll start talking and maybe slip up?"

"Exactly." He agreed, "I was going to tell you about it, but the time never felt right and we haven't got to see much of each other lately."

"It's okay." She assured him, then thinking back to how Selina was living at Wayne Manor with her brother now, she said, "No names though right? Cause if you rattle the right cage and they find out who the witness is-"

"No names." Harvey cut her off, "I don't even know the name of the witness."

She nodded offering a small smile before her phone range. Pulling her hand from his she looked to see it was Butch calling her, probably to remind her it was time to get to the armory.

"I need to get back to work." Bird admitted, silencing her phone as she tucked it back into her pocket and looked up at him.

"Maybe we can get dinner or something?" He offered, still feeling like something had shifted between them now and everything wasn't as kosher as she was pretending it was.

"I hope so." Bird agreed, as she raised up and kissed him.

As she pulled back, she surprised them both as she wrapped her arms around him and held onto him like she seemed afraid if she let go –she might lose him. Immediately he wrapped his arms around her and held her against him.

It was strange she thought, how even after seeing his flare-up, that being in his arms still made her feel safe, warm and protected.

"Are you okay?" He whispered, after several minutes of their embrace passed in silence.

He didn't get a verbal response like he'd wanted, but he felt her gently nod her head against his chest and she made no attempt to step back.

She hadn't lied when she told him that she had a lot on her mind minutes prior. She had, however, kept most of what she'd been thinking to herself.

He'd became one of the only bright parts of her life, and now she could see there was a darkness in him she'd either been blind to or just didn't want to accept. There was something inside of him that had gotten warped through the course of his life and she wasn't sure how she hadn't realized it sooner.

It made perfect sense, she thought, he'd been so quick in his patience with her and understanding of the hardships she'd told him about in her own life.  
Those sorts of things were always accepted easier by someone who'd also faced down their own type of hell and managed to claw their way out on the other side.

She wanted to know what had happened to him; to tear whoever had hurt him apart piece-by-piece until there was nothing left of them.

As she clutched onto him, she finally started to accept exactly how much she cared about him. That she'd fell for him –hard, and it didn't matter if there was something that was mangled inside of him; a part that had turned black and was rotting away somewhere under the surface, she was all in –for better or worse and every space in-between.

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you liked the chapter. You can always follow me on Tumblr (sagelondyn) to see edits I've made.  
**

 **Thank you to: Miss E Charlotte, Love. Fiction. 2016, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, and the two guests who reviewed chapter 22! I'd also like to thank SwingingOnAStar for catching up on the story and leaving some reviews along the way.**

 **It might not seem like much, but taking the time to leave a review means more than you'll ever know and helps keep me motivated and excited to post chapters. ^_.^**


	24. Way Down We Go

**XXIV**

 _"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold." -Helen Keller_

* * *

"Bird?" Butch said, waving a hand in front of her face as they stood at the back of the van they'd driven there together in. After she'd left Harvey's office she called Butch back and he'd told her to meet at the club and they'd ride to the armory together.

"Yeah?" Bird asked, blinking her eyes and giving it away that she'd been zoned out for the last several minutes.

"Come on." He sighed, facing her. "Crunch time here, you gotta get your head in the game. This is a big job and a damn important one that _you_ volunteered for."

"I got it." She replied, her tone snippier than she'd meant for it to be, as she pulled her hair back in a tight, high sitting ponytail and secured it in place with the band from her wrist.

He bit his tongue as he watched her wrap her hair into a tight bun and set it into place with some bobbypins. Fish had told him months ago to keep an eye on her, their boss felt like her loyalties might be aligned with someone else. He didn't see it that way, but he had picked up on how distracted she'd seemed recently and in his mind; her offering to handle such a dangerous task on her own was the equivalent of sending herself on a suicide mission –especially when it was clear that her thoughts were lightyears away.

Bird picked up the black ski mask and pulled it on over the top of her head, but didn't conceal her face with it yet. Zipping up the baggy black sweatshirt she'd chosen in hopes that from a distance it would be hard for someone to tell she was a female, she pulled the hood up on her head and reached down for the black leather archer glove she'd gotten earlier that day to protect her fingers from the bow. Once the protective glove was in place on her right hand, Butch handed her the one strap, cloth bag containing the arrows she'd need and she gave a small nod of thanks as she pulled it on so that the arrows would easily be accessible from reaching over her shoulder.

"I'm going to scale what's left of the old bridge to get a higher vantage point." Bird explained, as she picked up the explosive device and tucked it into her pocket.

"I'll stay over here, just in case someone tries to run this direction." Butch explained, before saying, "Hopefully it doesn't come to this… we'll be losing a lot of money."

"You're telling me." She breathed, pulling the mask over her face and looking around when she thought she heard the very distant sound of police sirens echoing in the open air around them.

"It's your call." Butch reminded her, "I'm just here as back up."

With a final nod, she turned and jogged in the other direction, heading towards the tall, crumbling remains of an old cement bridge on the edge of the parking lot next to the armory.  
As she made her way across the pavement and up the collapsing cement structure, she noticed the truck was already in place and there was no sign of the Russians.

Once she was in place, she crouched down amongst some dry, dead grass and weeds that had made its way through the cracks in the structure. She made sure she had a strong foothold in the gravel and that none of the empty beer bottles left on the ground near her was going to be in her way.

She hadn't been there long when there was a loud sound of an explosion, followed by the sound of iron striking concrete as the door from the vault fell.  
So far so good it seemed, once Nikolai's men got all of the money loaded and left from there to meet Fish's men at the secondary location it would be simple to take them out and bank the profits.

However, when the sounds of sirens drew even closer, Bird had a feeling that nothing was going to be going according to plan.  
Her heart was heavy with it's thuds against her ribcage as she watched the men load every last bit of money into the back of the truck and for a moment she thought they might be home free –until she saw Jim and Bullock making their way onto the scene from behind part of a dilapidated building that used to stand in the parking lot.

Cursing under her breath she crouched down even farther and retrieved the arrow shaft from her bag, keeping an eye on what was happening below as she screwed the bomb core tip onto the shaft.

"Kasyanov, you're surrounded!" Bullock yelled out to the leader of the pack as he and Jim continued to inch closer to the armed Russians.

Patrol cars started to litter the scene, driving in from every available entrance to the lot.

"There's no way out!" Bullock pointed out the obvious.

"Drop your weapons!" Jim called out to them, and one of the men yelled back, "Don't do it, stay back!"

"Hargrove, Ian Hargrove. Your brother and his family are safe, we have them in protective custody." Jim said, looking at the terrified Blackgate escapee who'd been used as a pawn and his skill set for the robbery.

Bird's eyes darted back and forth through the eye openings in the ski mask as she watched the scene play out. Fish wanted that money, but it was looking like the Russians were prepared to go out in a fiery blaze over it and if that happened chances were Jim would probably be killed in the process. Though, she wasn't entirely sure why she should even care after the last encounter they'd had.

Tension between the police and the Russians was starting to come to a head and Bird knew she had a decision to make. Pulling in a deep breath she knew the call she'd have to make, blow up the truck and kill what was left of Nikolai's men.

No loose ends.

Standing up she held her breath as she watched Ian Hargrove slowly move towards where Jim and Bullock were standing, while the police and the Russians yelled back and forth at each other, but she was no longer listening to what was being said.

She blocked out their voices and managed to find a calm center inside of herself, fully aware that after she fired the explosive at the truck there would be only a few second window of opportunity to take out the men who could tie any of the happenings back to Fish, after those few brief seconds they'd scatter and she'd have the GCPD firing power aimed in her direction.

Placing the explosive tipped arrow onto her bow with the arrow shaft against its rest and the nock against the string, she kept her arms and hands steady and her head clear. With her fingers in the correct position on the string, she pulled back and aligned her arrow to the area of the truck just above the gas tank.

Pulling in a breath, Bird held the air almost painfully deep inside of her lungs for a few fleeting seconds before she exhaled and let the string go, firing the explosive right to the spot that she'd aimed for.

Almost instantly a deafening, thundering boom shattered the stillness of the moment she'd been clinging to and the scene on the ground turned into chaos with money raining down from the large cloud of smoke from the flame engulfed truck.

Without even letting herself second guess her actions or pause to give her next moves any thought, she reached back and retrieved one of the arrows that she'd prepared earlier that day with the bullet tipped arrow heads she'd put down on the list of needed supplies.  
Lining up her sights she fired the arrow catching one the Russians with it directly in the chest; if the arrow didn't kill him than the bullet that discharged on impact surely would.

Operating more as a machine than a person, she retrieved, lined up and fired another of her bullet tipped arrows –repeating the same process over and over until all of Nikolai's men were down.

A high set in as she realized she'd completed her mission successfully and perfectly. But the moment of bliss was short lived when one of the glass bottles on the ground near her was shattered from a bullet and another one zipped past her leg, so close she could feel the heat off the bullet when it passed her.

"Up there!"

Jim's voice rang through the air as he quickly located where the arrows were flying from and alerted his fellow officers to their new threat and target.

Attaching the bow to her bag with the clip she'd already secured earlier that day, she did a back flip off the decaying bridge and dove deep into the icy, frigid waters of Gotham River -wasting no time getting out of the path from the array of bullets being fired at her from several different angles.

 **~()~**

Fish looked up when she heard the doors to her club open, and in walked Bird, who was drenched from head to toe with Butch right behind her.

"How did it go?" She asked, looking between them as they came to a stop in front of her.

"Cops were everywhere, our guys had no way out." Butch said, and Bird nodded in agreement pulling the bag off of her with the bow still attached to it and laying it down on the bar.

Fish watched as Bird unzipped her black sweatshirt she'd been wearing and layed it down on one of the bar stools where it immediately started to create a puddle on the floor underneath.

"I had to blow up the truck." Bird admitted, "It was a tough call, but I made the right choice. GCPD completely surrounded the armory."

With a look of intrigue on her face, Fish stepped closer to her as she asked, "Gregor and his men? Are they all dead?"

"Every last one of them." Bird replied, and Fish's eyes cut over to Butch who nodded and said, "She dropped them all, one after the other before the cops even knew what was happening or where the shots were coming from."

"Good." She exclaimed, with a smile slowly creeping over her lips, "I can't stand loose strings."

Seeing the look on Bird's face, Fish asked her, "What is it?"

"I was worried you'd be mad." She admitted, "There was so much money on that truck."

"Mad?" Fish asked, as she stepped closer and picked up one Bird's still dripping wet waves from her hair she'd unpinned on the drive back to the club, "Baby girl, I couldn't be happier. The money would have been nice but the point wasn't to steal that money, it was to hurt Falcone."

"Well… that you did, Fish. That you did." Butch agreed, and Fish instructed him to fetch a towel for Bird.

Once he brought it back, Fish draped the towel over the young woman's shoulders and stood just in front of her as she said with a sparkle in her eye, "I'm ashamed to admit it now… but I had some doubts about you."

"Well, it's not like I've ever had to prove my archery skills before-"

"No, I'm not only talking about today. See, since Penguin resurfaced –I found myself doubting you time and time again. Every time I looked at you, I had this little voice in the back of my mind haunting me... trying to tell me that I could no longer trust you." Continuing to snugly hold the towel around the dripping wet brunette she added, "I have to apologize for the way I've been treating you so harshly."

With that, she placed her hands on either side of Bird's face and held her still as she leaned and pressed a soft kiss to her lips, before pulling back and saying, "You have more than earned your place here and proven yourself."

Giving her the first sincere smile that Bird had seen from her in a long time, Fish patted the side of her face as she said, "Welcome home."

 **~( Days later )~**

"Everything alright, Lady Wayne?" Alfred questioned as he found Bird in an outer hallway of Wayne Manor.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered, but the expression on her face told a different story entirely.

Looking down to her phone she blew out a sigh before flipping it shut and tucking it into her pocket. She'd been trying to reach out to Oswald for the last few days, but her friend wasn't returning any of her calls and she got the feeling he was angry with her for not telling him about Fish's plan involving Liza.

"How are things here?" Bird asked, trying to get Oswald off her mind and not dwell on things currently out of her control.

"I spoke to Detective Gordon yesterday, with any luck he'll be dropping by today." He answered, his arms crossing behind his back in his usual stance as he admitted, "Things aren't working out with our newest house guest, I'm afraid."

"What's wrong?" Bird questioned. The last time she'd seen Selina and her brother together they'd seemed to be getting along just fine.

"I'm afraid, Lady Wayne, that the list of things currently right with the situation would be much shorter."

Checking the time he said, "I'd better tend to breakfast."

After he was out of sight Bird took her phone back out and tried calling Oswald once more, but he still wouldn't answer her calls.

She ventured into her late father's office expecting to find her brother in there but instead the room was empty. Dropping onto one of the leather couches, she plucked that morning's newspaper up from the coffee table and scanned over it.

"Morning." She called out, not looking up from the paper.

Selina's eyes widened as she stood just inside of the doorway, she was always so quiet and fast that she wasn't used to other people spotting her until she was ready to be seen.

"Hey." Selina greeted, hoping over the back of the couch opposite the one Bird was sitting on, and sat with her legs underneath her in a crouch like she might have to bolt away at any moment.

"Can I ask you something?" Selina finally questioned, absentmindedly picking at the torn fabric of her dark, worn jeans.

Folding the paper up and dropping it back on the table in front of her, Bird gave a short nod signaling her to go on.

Thinking back to the last few days, she said, "Your brother says he's learning to fight and defend himself, but he's doing things like holding his breath under water and boxing with gloves on."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums up his latest hobbies." She said with a small chuckle before asking, "Where was the question in that?"

"You can fight, I know you can." Selina admitted, she'd heard different stories about Bird on the streets, "So if he's trying to defend himself out there, why aren't you the one teaching him –instead of your butler?"

"Our butler used to be in the British Special Air Service." Bird said with a slight smirk, "He's a lot more dangerous than he looks."

"Yeah, but so are you." Selina countered as she adjusted the hood on her dark gray jacket and nodded towards the large floor to ceiling windows when she added, "And you've been out there, you know being strong ain't enough; not in Gotham. Bruce wouldn't last five minutes out on the street."

Bird eyed her as she thought about her next response. The truth was, she didn't want to get involved with showing her brother how to fight because she knew it would bring up a lot of questions on how she'd gotten so skilled herself. Questions that she wasn't ready to answer.  
It wasn't a secret to her brother that Bird hung around with a tough crowd and was involved with things that she shouldn't be, but he didn't know the extent of how far she'd fallen.  
The older he got, the more inevitable that it became that he would, indeed, one day find out things about her that would surely forever change the way he thought and felt about her.  
But for now she was still his big sister and he still wanted her around, and she was trying to hold onto to that for as long as possible.

With a shrug she said, "Maybe I'm counting on the fact that he's safe inside of these walls."

Selina raised her eyebrows in response as she countered, "He can't stay inside forever."

With a knowing expression on her face, Bird's dimples showed as she fought to hide her smile when she asked, "Why does it matter to you so much anyways?"

Trying to act like she wasn't already growing attached to Bruce, Selina lied, "It doesn't."

"Good Morning." Bruce greeted them both as he walked into the room and looked between them.

When he was met by two pairs of surprised stares and the room stayed quite, he shifted uncomfortably with a feeling like they must have been talking about him.

The feeling of awkwardness inside of him grew as he crossed the room and sat down on the couch by his sister. Looking between them, he cleared his throat and asked, "Did you know each other before… all of this?"

"Not really." Bird shrugged and Selina nodded in agreement, "Probably crossed paths a few times, why?"

"I was just making conversation." He softly admitted looking down to his shoes as he spoke.

"Ah, Master Bruce, just in time for breakfast." Alfred said as he entered the room and sat the tray of assorted breakfast foods down on the coffee table and turned his attention to Bird as he questioned, "Will you be staying?"

"No, I'm actually going to be meeting Harvey in a few hours for an early lunch before he goes to court this afternoon." Bird declined the offer with a smile as she stood up.

"Tell him I said hello?" Bruce questioned, earning a nod of agreement from his sister.

After saying goodbye to her brother and Selina, she walked out of the room and Alfred followed her.

Once he was sure they were out of earshot from the young pair now eating their breakfast, he asked, "Wonderful isn't? That Detective Gordon managed to come unscathed out of a situation where he thought himself sure to die?"

Turning back to face him she shrugged, "Maybe he had someone looking out for him."

"That was my thought too." He conceded, keeping his eyes on her when he asked, "Would it also be correct to assume that-that someone might be you?"

"Well, you know what they say about those who assume…" Bird countered, "They make an ass out of you and me-"

Not letting her finish her statement, Alfred cut her off, "Have you seen the news recently? They've been running a story about a robbery at the old Gotham Armory, it appears someone brought down the thieves with arrows."

"So?" She asked, keeping a calm look on her face as she shrugged and waited for him to go on.

"Strange isn't it?" He asked, his own expression giving nothing away, "You wouldn't think archery to be a very common talent –not in Gotham at least."

Her jaw tensed, feeling like he was only a few words shy of an accusation.

"What are you saying Alfred?" Bird asked, her arms crossing over her chest as she spoke.

"Nothing really."

Just as she started to turn and continue on her way out of the house and towards her car, Alfred said, "It's a battle as old as time –between good and bad. Sometimes fought outwardly and at other times an ever more difficult battle one fights within."

Turning back around she stared at him with an almost unnerving blank expression, clearly already prepared and numbed to whatever he might say or question her on next.

Pulling in a deep breath he reasoned, "I'd imagine, Lady Wayne, that at times the duplicity must be a bit much to handle."

She opened her mouth to tell him again that she needed to be going, but before she got the chance they both heard the sound of glass breaking.

Alfred spun around to head back to where they'd left Bruce and Selina with their breakfast. He just knew this mess he was going to have to clean now had to have been created by her.

Bird quickly followed him and they both stopped at the doorway just in time to see Bruce duck behind a couch as Selina threw a bagel that knocked her glass of milk off the table, where it broke against the floor and the liquid started to spread on the hardwood.

With a laugh, she jumped up onto the other couch and flipped over the back to take cover when Bruce returned fire with a buttered croissant that nearly hit her before she ducked down.

Quickly running around the couch he'd been using to shield himself, he grabbed a handful of food off his breakfast plate and darted across the room, only to be nailed square in the chest by the same croissant he'd thrown at Selina.

With a laugh he threw the contents in his hand back at her and leapt behind the desk, trying to stay out of her line of fire.

"My god…" Alfred breathed, looking at the disaster of a mess he was going to be spending most of the day trying to clean up.

"I haven't seen him smile like that in a long time." Bird quietly said, a smile falling over her own lips as she watched her little brother appearing to be having the time of his life in an all out food fight war.

Looking to where Bruce was now gathering an arsenal of various rolls and bread items off the floor, Alfred smiled. He hadn't seen him smile like that in a long time either, his entire face was lit up and there was a carefree look of happiness in his eyes. For the first time in a very long time, he was acting like an almost typical thirteen year old –who didn't bear the burden of losing his parents in front of his eyes.  
It was worth it, Alfred thought, seeing Bruce have even those few moments of sunshine back in his life, was worth any amount of food he'd have to scrape up off the floor and all the broken glass he'd have to sweep up.

When his cellphone started to ring, he quickly stepped away from the office door so neither Bruce nor Selina would be aware of his watching them.

"Detective." He greeted, upon hearing Jim's voice.

When he was questioned about if Selina was behaving herself any better, Alfred admitted, "Well, not really, no."

Bird lingered for a few more seconds watching the food fight, before she left them to their continued warfare and found Alfred just down the hallway where she saw him talking on the phone and heard him say.  
"Yes, well she's a breath of fresh air… one might say."

After he tucked his phone back into his pocket, Bird said, "I worry about him all the time, you know? But it's moments like that, where I sort of feel like he might be okay –despite all he's been through. I think having Selina around might actually be a good thing."

"Yes." Alfred agreed, "It would appear maybe our new houseguest is a better fit than I thought."

 **~(Later that morning)~**

"I'm glad I got to see you, even if it only felt like it was for a few minutes." Harvey said, looking over to Bird as they walked hand-in-hand out of the small café towards their cars.

"Me too." She agreed, leaning her back against her car and looking at him in the late morning sunlight.

His eyes met hers and he smiled, feeling a sense of relief that everything seemed to be okay between them after she'd witnessed his outburst and threatening to rip Dick Lovecraft apart.  
He'd felt like there was some sort of shift between them that day and the way she'd hugged him before leaving still had him feeling like she hadn't completely been honest with him when she said they were okay.

Growing up in a severely abusive home with an alcoholic father who had a collection of underlying mental health issues –he, himself had been prone to frenzied bouts of anger. So much so that in his darkest hours he feared that he might start to turn into the man he'd grown up both fearing and hating.  
But he'd done everything in his power to leave his painful past behind him and it was the desire to rise above his upbringing and become everything his father never was, that drove him through law school and his strong work ethic set him both above and apart from the other A.D.A's in Gotham City.

Though it wasn't without his own set of struggles; the farther he'd pushed the trauma down and worked hard for a life of his own –a life with meaning, things had started to fall into place.  
He'd graduated law school summa cum laude and had no trouble finding a job afterwards, he might not have been as wealthy as the defense lawyers he faced off against, but he had a nice apartment and after bills were paid he still had a good bit left over.

And now since finding Bird, he felt like he had someone to share his life with. Someone who he actually wanted to share it with. A few days prior when she'd seen him blow up at Lovecraft, he had a growing fear in his stomach that she might not be able to look past it and it might have just been enough to lose her, but thankfully they'd moved past it.  
He might have some trouble controlling his anger now and then when provoked, but he was sure with every fiber of his being that he wouldn't ever hurt her.

He could feel Bird smiling against his mouth as he leaned down and kissed her; Harvey could still taste the berry and cream topped waffles she'd got for breakfast on her tongue and he would have given anything to be able to just spend the rest of the day with her. Unfortunately, he had the last day of deliberations and his closing argument to present later that afternoon and so for now, a few stolen moments would have to last him for the rest of the day.

"Next week." He breathed, pulling back far enough to look at her with the promise, "Next week, I shouldn't have to put in any extra hours and we can finally spend more time together."

His forehead rested against hers as he said in a quiet, slightly husky tone, "We could even go out Friday and you could stay the weekend."

"Maybe." She said smiling at the idea of being able to spend so much time with him, though her heart skipped a few beats knowing he clearly had more on his mind than just sitting up watching movies and talking like the other times she'd been there overnight. "I might have to pop out for a couple hours if my boss needs me, but I really want to see you."

"Well, if you're needed at work… I could just come with you. Have a drink until you're done." He suggested.

Bird let out a small nervous laugh. This wasn't the first time he'd brought up coming to see where she worked, and for as long as she could she was going to keep him in the dark about several things –and where she worked and who she worked for were high on that list.

"I don't think you'd like it there; I can't imagine it being your scene." She tried to dismiss the offer and hope he'd changed the subject, but instead he pushed, "You know, I don't even think you've told me the name of the club-"

"I've been thinking about finding a job somewhere else." She cut him off with a lie and the hope that if he thought she was quitting soon, he wouldn't want to see where she worked after all.

"Really?" He asked with a stunned expression, it wasn't all that long ago she'd told him even though it was a rough and sometimes dangerous scene she liked her job and didn't want to leave. In fact, this was the first mention he'd ever heard her make of quitting.

"Yeah." She continued the lie, but added a heart of truth knowing it would sell the story better, "I ran into some problems with my boss a little while back and sometimes it's nearly unbearable to be under the same roof with her."

"Her?" He asked, the surprised expression spreading at learning it was a woman who was running the club. He of course, didn't have any problem with it, but night clubs and bars were typically under the management of men in Gotham. Probably because nearly every single nightspot fell into either Falcone or Maroni's territories and were all operated under instilling a sense of fear in their patrons to prevent against any crimes of theft or worse.

"Yes, her." Bird nodded, with raised eyebrows adding, "Are you saying a woman can't run a nightclub?"

"No, not at all." He quickly assured her, "It just seems rare in Gotham City is all."

"Why?" Bird pushed, keeping the same expression on her face as she asked, "We're just as capable of running any business as well as any man could-"

"Starling." He said, cutting her off as he rubbed his hands down her sides and gave her a smile, "That's not what I meant at all."

"Well good, because I would have found that incredibly offensive." She admitted, her arms crossing over her chest as she looked up at him and their eyes locked.

"As you should." He agreed, "But that isn't what I meant at all."

"It better not have been." She added, if for nothing else than to have the last word because any trace of her irritation from moments ago was gone as quickly as the soft breeze that blew through the trees near them.

Harvey's lips angled down as he said, "I wish I didn't have to go, but-"

"You can't exactly bail on your case. It's okay." She smiled, a playfulness in her tone when she added, "You are trying to do the impossible after all –cleaning up these mean streets."

"You don't believe it can be done, but you'll see it's not impossible. It's just going to take a long time and the help of a lot of people." He argued, knowing she was joking by her tone, but it did get under his skin how she always acted like the war was lost before the battle had started. Before he could stop himself he admitted, "It also wouldn't hurt to know you believe in me. I just want to make this city a better place –even if it's an uphill battle."

The expression on her face fell when she realized she'd managed to yet again, strike a nerve when they got on the topic of Gotham's future.

"It was only a joke." She assured him, reaching down and intertwining her fingers with his as she spoke.

"I know, but it's not a joke to me." He argued, but gave her hand a small squeeze to try and show he wasn't mad.

They stood in silence for a few moments, before she pulled her hand from his grip and smoothed the lapels of his black suit jacket down and looked at him with an honest and serious expression gracing her features, "Harvey, I do believe in you. I think if anyone can make a difference here, it's you."

Her hands laid flat against his chest as she justified her behavior, "I guess after spending my whole life seeing nothing but crime and corruption, it's hard to imagine Gotham City being anything other than what it is."

"I think that's common." He nodded, reaching up and holding onto her hands when he reasoned, "There's a real sense of despondency in the city, nearly everyone has trouble trying to envision something different."

Leaning up she pressed a kiss to his lips. "Well, years down the road when you've accomplished everything you want to, you'll have the rights to the biggest ' _I told you so'_ in all of history."

Her words put a smile on his face, but he knew it would always be a battle. The work he was setting out to do would never truly be over.

"Close your eyes."

"What?" She asked with a chuckle, caught off guard.

"Trust me." He said, his eyes locking with hers as he repeated, "Close your eyes."

Bird looked around them to the nearly empty parking lot and then back to him as she shook her head in disbelief and closed her eyes like she was asked to.

Her heart picked up speed at the feeling of his fingertips against her skin as he took hold of her arm and brought it up some, she'd started to ask what he was doing but then she felt something small and cool against the skin on her wrist, which she quickly realized was a bracelet.

"Okay, you can open them." He said, she opened her eyes to see he'd fastened a white gold bracelet on her wrist. Her eyes cut up to him, before she moved her arm closer to get a better look at and saw that hanging from the dainty chain was a matching white gold charm of a birdcage with small emeralds and sapphires lining the rounded top design and placed in such a way it looked like they were raining down over the top. Just a short distance to the left of the cage was another charm –a bird with its wings spread, fixed onto the chain so it appeared to be flying away from the cage.

Running her fingers over both charms she took her time inspecting it before looking back up to meet his eyes with a stunned expression on her face, like she wasn't sure what to say to him.

"A late birthday present." He explained, watching her closely as he spoke. "I had it special ordered and then with us working such opposite hours I've barely seen you-"

His explanation was cut short as she raised up and silenced him with a passionate kiss, pulling back just long enough to say, "I love it, Harvey. Thank you." before melting back into the moment with him.

He smiled at her once their mouths were separated, and reached down to hold onto her hand of the wrist now adorned with the bracelet.

Turning her hand over so the underside of her wrist was facing up, he looked down to the charms as he said, "I think I'm getting it now… the whole Bird thing."  
When she looked at him expectantly he offered up his take on her self-chosen nickname, "Sometimes the circumstances we face in life can feel like a prison. You've been through hell; things that made you feel trapped by it all… but you grew so strong and instead of living in a cage –you fly free."

With that he brought her arm up farther and pressed a feather light kiss to the inside of her wrist, she could have sworn her heart stopped inside of her chest. It was the single most loving, gentle and intimate thing she'd felt in her entire life and she never wanted to lose that feeling for as long as she lived.

 **~(That night)~**

"You scared me!" Liza exclaimed as she turned on the light in her living room and saw Bird sitting on her couch. Her eyes darted back to her front door as she wondered exactly how easy her apartment must be to break into; it was only days ago that Oswald had broken in and confronted her about working for Fish.

"Sorry." Bird apologized standing up and walking closer, "I'm going to ask you something and I need you be to entirely honest with me, okay?"

"Sure." Liza said as she slowly nodded and sat her purse down on the table next to her.

"Does Oswald Cobblepot know you're working for Fish?"

Letting out a heavy sigh that seemed to have a tinge of relief in it that she could finally talk to someone, she nodded, "He broke into here and he already knew Fish hired me, I didn't tell him."

Her face twisted into a slight look of panic when she said, "I don't know how he knew."

"I think he got his hands on one of Fish's new employees –from there I'd bet he just connected the dots." Bird explained, shaking her head and knowing it wouldn't have been too difficult for him with how clever he was.

"Do you think he'd tell-" Liza started to ask, but Bird shook her head, "No, at least not right now. He'll hold onto the information to either save his own skin or until the perfect moment to bring everything down."

"I, uh…" Liza breathed, shrugging out of her jacket and draping it over the back of a tall sitting chair when she crossed through her small living room, she breathed, "I need a drink."

Bird sat back down on the couch she'd been sitting on and it was just a few moments later that Liza returned with two glasses and a freshly uncorked bottle of wine, they sat in silence as she poured some white wine into each glass.

Taking a long sip from her glass, Bird cleared her throat and questioned, "Liza, is there somewhere you've always wanted to go?"

"Like…" Liza pushed, wanting a clearer question to answer.

"Like…" Bird breathed, giving it some thought, "For example, I adore Europe. I always imagined myself living in Italy one day… Venice to be precise."

"I've never been there." Liza said with a small smile, before she said, "I always dreamed of getting out of Gotham though, never to any one certain place –but I've always wanted to live near a beach. Wake up to the smell of salt water… hot sunny days and warm sands."

Pouring some more wine into her own glass, Liza shrugged, "Maybe somewhere in California or Hawaii."

"Dream bigger." Bird encouraged, "What about somewhere like Rio de Janeiro?"

"Brazil?" Liza laughed, "I've never even been out of the country, but who knows, maybe one day I can afford to take a trip there."

"What if you could go there now? Not just to visit, but to live there? Under a different name of course, you could be anyone you wanted to be –do anything you wanted to do."

"What are you talking about?" Liza asked, her entire face morphed into an extreme look of confusion.

"I have money, Liza. A hell of a lot of it and I know people who can help you disappear-"

"Why would you do that for me?" She questioned.

"I like you." Bird admitted, "And honestly, I have a feeling like the floor we're standing on here is going to drop out from under us at any moment and if something happens to you, I'm going to feel responsible. I played a big part in getting you where you are and honestly from the beginning I tried to not like you because I felt like I was sending you to your death or something."

"Let me fix this and help you. I can get you out of the country today, if you want. I'm talking anywhere in the world that you want to go with a bank account to keep you more than comfortable." Bird quickly added.

"Wow…" Liza breathed, looking down into her glass cup as she moved and watched the wine climb the glass sides as she moved, "A new life, huh? No more Falcone, no more Gotham… no more Liza?"

"You can't tell me it doesn't have its appeal." Bird softly stated, knowing that some days she herself was tempted to leave everything behind and start over as someone else.

"A year ago, hell even months ago I would have jumped at the chance. I spent a really long time wanting to be someone else, somewhere else. I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm not proud of, things that I would have given anything to change." She admitted, setting her glass down with a light clank on the coffee table, "But now, for the first time in a really long time, I like the person I am."

"You do realize this person you like being is the person Fish and I created?" Bird asked.

"Maybe." She shrugged, tucking her hair behind her ear, "Or maybe somewhere deep down, this is who I really am and I just needed some help finding it."

Bird's eyebrows lowered as she started to argue, "Fish –"

"Fish promised that no harm would come to me!" Liza spoke loudly, seeming taken aback by her own outburst. Pulling a breath and lowering her voice back down, she explained, "It wasn't too long ago that I went to Fish and told her I wanted out, but she convinced me to stay. She promised me that if I trusted her, she wouldn't let anyone hurt me."

"This is Gotham, no one can keep a promise like that… wait…" Bird realized the expression on her face changing as she asked, "This isn't about Fish at all, is it? This is about Falcone."

Standing up, Liza smoothed out her skirt and crossed the room, looking out of her window as she folded her arms over her chest and took her time in admitting, "No one has ever treated me the way he does. He's been a perfect gentleman, I mean I went into this knowing I'd have to do whatever he wanted me to do and be whoever he wanted me to and he could have done anything at all with me. But he's been so respectful and thoughtful, he asks my opinions on things and really listens to what I have to say."

"I get it." Bird nodded, standing up and slowly walking closer to her, "He's got money and power and he's charming. Truth be told, even though I'm hoping to depose him, there has always been something I've sort of liked about Falcone."

"You don't get it." Liza softly said, still looking out of the window instead of turning to face to Bird, "It's not about status or even about money. He cares for me, in a way that no one else ever has."

Finally turning to look at her friend, Liza's arms fell to her sides as she asked, "Have you ever had someone care about you in a way that just makes you feel like despite all of the bad things you've done or that have happened to you, it doesn't even matter when you're with them? Like instead of seeing what you see when you look in a mirror, they see a totally different version of you and it's enough to make you want to be the better version that they see?"

Reaching up, Bird started to tuck her hair behind her ear, but as she did the light reflecting off the bracelet that Harvey had given her caught her eye and she paused to stare at it, lightly running her finger over the bird shaped charm she nodded to what Liza said, "Yeah, I know what that feels like."

"Then you understand." Liza replied, walking back over to the coffee table to pick her glass of wine back up.

"Yes, but in order to feel anything –you have to be alive."

Liza paused with the glass just in front of her lips and turned to look at Bird with the grim realization, "You really think this entire thing is going to come crashing down around us, don't you?"

"I think whether Falcone finds out tomorrow or five years down the road, it's going to be an unforgivable betrayal and he will kill you."

"I think you're wrong." Liza argued with a small shrug, as if she were trying to distance herself from the reality of how dangerous a situation she'd gotten involved herself involved in, "He cares about me too much." Pulling in a shallow breath she added, "And you don't know him, not the way I do."

"This is my world, Liza. I deal with people like Falcone on a daily basis –the kind of people who can look into the eyes of someone important to them and snuff out their light. He's not kidding when he says that business is business. To get to the place where he is and stay on top for as long as he has…" Bird's voice trailed off, clearly able to see from her friend's face that nothing she said would change her mind. With a shrug of her own she softly said, "I think you're making a mistake by staying."

"I don't think I am." Liza argued.

Mustering a smile in spite of the way she was feeling behind it, Bird said, "I should get going then."

"It was good to see you." Liza replied with a small smile of her own, as she watched Bird go to the door and let herself out without turning back to look at her.

* * *

 **A/N - I hope you all liked the chapter. Thanks so much for reading! Not sure if any of you are fans of the Scream series on MTV, but I've recently started a story for that show. It's up on my account and titled 'Under the Water'.**

 **I'd like to thank Miss E Charlotte, SwingingOnAStar, Guest, SusieSamurai, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Love. Fiction. 2016, and to MzzLightwood for leaving a review on chapter 23!**

 **For my Oswald fans, he will be back soon, I promise. ^_^**


	25. Devil's Playground

**XXV**

 _"Fear was the hand of the devil holding a scalding hot branding iron and touching your brain and your stomach and yelling at you to run with leaden feet." ― Dan Groat, Monarchs and Mendicants_

* * *

"You wanna kiss me?"

Bird stopped descending the stairs in Wayne Manor upon hearing Selina Kyle's voice and question.

"No thank you."

She could hear Bruce answer, and as quietly as possible Bird moved farther down the steps to get a better look at the young teenagers.

"No?" Selina asked crossing her arms over her chest and shooting him a look of disbelief.

"I would like too, but I can't help feeling you have an ulterior motive. I don't imagine you consider me a suitable romantic partner, so why would you want to kiss me?" Bruce answered as honestly as possible, and ended with it a question in hopes that he'd get an equally honest answer from her.

Bird covered her mouth to keep from laughing and draw attention to herself.  
While she thought her brother's answer was adorable, she could easily see why he wasn't faring well with any of the girls from his school.

"You think too much, kid. I was just trying to be nice." Selina pointed out, appearing to not be fazed by his answer.

"No offense, but you don't strike me as a nice person." Bruce said, standing up and moving closer to her.

"I'm nice." She was quick to defend.

"I don't mean you're not a good person, just that you're not nice. You don't care much for other people." He tried to explain, but it turned the situation from bad to worse when it only offended her deeper and Selina snapped, "Screw you, orphan."

Bird shook her head at them and quickly continued on her trek down the staircase in hopes to diffuse the situation as quickly as it had escalated.

"Morning you two." Bird greeted, as she walked up to the pair and asked, "Had breakfast yet?"

"No." Selina answered and Bruce shook his head back and forth, but he had a stunned expression on his face from how quickly Selina had snapped at him, when he'd been nothing but entirely honest with her.

Looking between the teens who no longer would look at each other, Bird asked, "Everything alright?"

They both nodded, but neither of them gave her an answer out loud.

"Great." She said with a tight smile, before asking, "Wanna give Alfred the morning off and go get breakfast somewhere?"

"Both of us?" Bruce questioned, surprised, as he looked between his sister and Selina.  
Much like Selina, he knew Bird didn't care much for people either and it was rare that he witnessed her being pleasant in social situations with people she barely knew.

"Yes…" She replied, mirroring the confused expression he was giving her.

"I could eat." Selina spoke up, living almost her entire life not knowing where her next meal was coming from –she knew better than to turn down a chance at free food.

"I'll let Alfred know, and you guys decide where we're going to eat." She said, hoping it would get them civilly speaking to each other again.

Hearing the door bell ring, the trio leaned over the railing on the landing they were standing on to watch as Alfred went to answer the door.

"If you could call an ambulance…" They heard a distressed female voice say, moments before she walked into sight with Alfred right behind her.

"Where exactly are you hurt?" Alfred questioned with concern in his voice as he looked her over. When he'd answered the door, she said her car had went off the road.

"Alfred, is everything alright?" Bruce asked.

"No, Master Bruce this lady has been involved in a car accident." Alfred explained, and just as he was going to ask one of them to call for an ambulance he saw the fear in Selina's eyes and he slowly turned his head back to see the woman was no longer acting the part of an injured stranger in need of help.  
Instead her predatory gaze was now focused on the teenagers and he realized she wasn't truly there seeking help.

"Run!" Alfred yelled, as he struck the woman down, trying to prevent her from going after them.  
Within a matter of seconds a couple men entered the house, dressed all in black like the woman was. Bird looked to her brother as she repeated Alfred's order, "Run!"

With that she jumped over the railing, using one of the men underneath to break her fall as she wrapped herself around him when they tumbled to the floor. In an instant she was on top of his back holding him down, and got her arm around his throat and grabbed onto her other arm to keep the hold on him tight. She pushed her free hand down onto the back of his neck and held tight until he stopped struggling and fell unconscious within a matter of mere seconds.

Jumping to her feet, she looked over and saw the woman who'd lied about the car accident trying to get a sleeper hold on Alfred, much like the one she, herself, had just done to the still motionless man on the floor, but Alfred managed to flip the woman off of him.

Two more armed men rushed through the still open front door and the woman took off running up the stairs, leaving one of her men to take her place in the fight with Alfred.  
Bird turned and darted up the stairs after them, hoping that her brother had either made it out of the house already, or was hidden away somewhere where he couldn't be found by someone who didn't know the layout of Wayne Manor.

Stopping briefly at the top of the stairs, she glanced around on high alert for anything out of place, it was then that she saw an open closet door that led to an old servants hallway. Following the path she thought her brother would have taken Selina on to get out of the house, she followed the path of the hallway until she reached an open window and climbed out onto the attached roof of the veranda, and jumped down to the ground.

Landing perfectly in a crouch, she looked around and caught a glimpse of dark clothing vanish behind some tall shrubbery leading into the side yard. Back on her feet in an instant she sprinted after the assassins, she could hear gunfire being exchanged behind her, but she didn't look back.

In the shade of all the trees, it wasn't long until the man and woman she'd been tailing were out of her line of view and she could only hope that –that meant they'd also not been able to follow her brother and Selina.

Slowing to a stop, Bird tried to slow her breathing and focused on her surroundings.

" _BRUCE!"_

Alfred's voice cut through the silence of the moment like a razor sharp blade, knowing that if Alfred was yelling out for her brother, he wasn't still back in the house; meaning he'd fled the grounds with Selina.  
Taking a deep breath she started running again away from the house in hopes she might find Bruce.

 **~()~**

"Local P.D. is searching the woods, but so far no sign of Bruce or Selina." Jim announced as he walked into the room of Wayne Manor where Alfred's gunshot wound was being tended to by one of the paramedics on sight.

"They're not going to find them." Bird huffed, fighting for her breath as she entered the room and leaned back against the wall. "I've been all over it and didn't see them."

Seeing that Alfred was injured she slightly stumbled over to him and realized the gun shots she'd heard had to have been him squaring off with one of the assassins.

"How bad are you hurt?" She gasped, still trying to catch her breath.

"Not bad." He answered, looking her over and observing her exhausted state, with her damp hair stuck to her face and the beads of sweat still forming across her forehead, her cheeks had taken on such a dark red hue that in the shadowed spot she was standing in they looked black.

"Sit down and catch your breath." He ordered, nodding to the couch and he didn't have to tell her twice. She practically collapsed onto the leather and was starting to feel like she'd never breathe normal again.

After instructing an officer to bring Bird a glass of water, Jim looked to Alfred and then over to Bird, "Tell me about this woman."

"Well, she was early thirties." Alfred said, flinching as they applied pressure to his still bleeding arm, "A pretty tasty fighter actually."

"Yeah, she and the guys with her." Bird nodded in thanks as she gratefully took the glass of water from the officer and pointed out, "They had to be professionals."

Slapping the hands of the paramedic away from him, Alfred stood up and said, "Look mate, it's just a scratch. Shove off will you, I've got stuff to do."

Following him across the room Jim said, "We've got about fifty police in the woods and even more on the roads. We need to focus on this woman and her people."

"They were trained killers, as Lady Wayne said." Alfred gruffly replied, thinking of how the only reason for them to be at the house would have been after Selina, he pointed out, "And your bloody little girl brought them here."

"We don't know that yet." He tried to argue.

"The hell we don't." Bird loudly said, downing the last of her water as she stood up and pointed out, "They only wanted anything to do with Alfred and I, when we got in their way. They were here for Selina."

Walking into the room, Bullock congratulated Alfred and Bird on the assassins they'd brought down before the police got there, "Nice work out there."

"Not good enough though, was it?" Alfred replied.

"Got this off the dead guy outside." Bullock said, holding up a picture of Selina's latest mugshot. "Nothing else. No keys, no ID, notta. Now I know this girl, she was grabbed by the child snatchers and now she's getting attacked by assassins at Wayne freaking Manor?"  
His voice raised as he looked to his partner and asked, "What the hell is going on compadre?"

"What, you haven't told him?" Alfred questioned, shaking his head back and forth.

"Selina Kyle was in the alley the night the Wayne's were murdered. She saw the killers face." Jim explained.

"No, no, no." Bullock argued, "For petes-sake, do not do this to me."

"Harvey Dent in the DA's office is investigating, he thinks that Dick Lovecraft, might be connected to the Wayne killings. So, he let it leak that we had a witness. He thought he could spook Lovecraft, get him to reveal himself." Jim filled him in on what had been happening.

"Wait." Alfred said, looking to Bird, "Are they talking about your Harvey Dent?"

"Yeah, my Harvey Dent." Bird sighed, rubbing her forehead. "But he didn't even know who the witness was."

"I didn't tell him." Jim assured Alfred, then looked to Bird with an expectant look on his face.

"Don't look at me like that. You can't pin this one me!" She argued with her own voice raised.

"Great!" Bullock exclaimed, tossing his arms up as he spoke, "It all sounds like a hell of a plan."  
Pausing for a second, he yelled, "How did it work out? Bravo!"

"I thought she was safe." Jim defended, "We thought no one knew she was here."

"Yeah, well you were wrong, you plank!" Alfred accused, "How did they know?"

Ignoring his question, Bullock let Jim know how mad and upset he was that he didn't let him in on the plan. To which, Jim tried to defend his actions by saying that he didn't tell him because he knew Bullock would try to stop it.

A few minutes passed with the partners yelling at one another and Bird looking back and forth between them while the ever-present pounding in Alfred's head only increased with each passing second.

"Will you both shut up? The pair of you! You can argue later!" He finally screamed, causing everyone to jump from the sudden and unexpected outburst. "Right now, we need to find Master Bruce."

"Right." Jim agreed nodding, "If they don't come back soon, then their headed into the city. Selina feels safe there and Bruce-"

"Would follow her, for sure." Bird said, she could see just how fond her little brother was of Selina and there was no doubt in her mind that he'd follow her right into the heart of Gotham City.

"That's perfect." Bullock complained, "Good luck trying to find her in the city, a street kid like that."

"But you will help us?" Jim questioned.

"Yeah, of course I will… because I have to be crazy!"

"Thank you." Jim said, before turning his attention back to everyone else and saying, "I'll focus on Lovecraft, I'll find him and if he is behind this, I'll get him to call off the contract."

After instructing Bullock to use his contacts on the street and run angles from that way, Alfred volunteered to go with Bullock and Bird caught up with Jim outside to tell him she was coming with him.

 **~()~**

Bird was just steps behind Jim when he barged into Harvey's office and he accounted, "Lovecraft's not at home. His housekeeper hasn't seen him since yesterday."

"Allen says he didn't come into his office." Harvey said in a rushed voice as he looked between them, "He and Montoya are watching it."

"How did the killers know where to find my witness?" Jim asked, though it seemed like he was asking himself that out loud rather than looking for Bird or Harvey to answer him.

"Let's keep calm. This is a win. We made Lovecraft panic, this is a panic movie." Harvey said.  
His eyes widened when he was met by the harsh and wrath filled stares directed at him from both his girlfriend and from Jim.

He opened his mouth to explain how what he'd meant wasn't nearly as bad as the way it came out, but he wasn't given a chance to speak.

"A win?" Jim and Bird both yelled at the same time, catching Harvey even more off guard.

"There are two children out there with professional assassins coming after them." Jim added and Bird stepped closer to Harvey as she pointed out, "We're talking about my brother, Harvey. You've met him, how the hell do you think he's gonna make it out there on the streets with trained killers just a few steps behind him?"

"We're going to get Lovecraft to call them off." Harvey said, looking between them and managing to keep his voice calm even though everyone else in the room was shouting at him.

"How the hell did they know?" Jim breathed, rubbing his forehead. "I never even told you her name, let alone where she was hiding. So you couldn't have -"

"I should say not!" Harvey cut him off, looking offended by the suggestion that he would have been stupid enough to leak that information, even if he'd had it.

Bird crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the desk. When Jim looked at her, she shot him a look of her own to let him know he'd regret it if he hinted again at her being responsible.

"And you never mentioned my name to anyone?" Jim asked, looking back to Harvey.

"No!" He said, his voice raising to match the detectives tone, "We agreed, I didn't mention any names out loud."

"Out loud?" Bird asked, immediately picking up on his slip.

Looking back to the attorney, Jim slowly walked towards him in a threatening manner as he asked, "No names out loud, what about whispering?"

When Jim came to a stop directly in front of him, Harvey's eyes widened slightly from the manner in which he was being approached. Looking to the side he broke eye contact and being a seasoned interrogator, Jim immediately picked up on his hesitation.

"Don't hold back on me, I'll know." He warned.

"For deep background, I leaked your name to a couple of select sources." He finally admitted, his eyes cutting over to Bird for a second to gauge her reaction before he quickly looked away.

"I had to!" He quickly defended when both Jim and Bird were looking at him like his hands were stained with blood, "For credibility! You're the Wayne murders cop."

"Damn it, that's how they got to her!" Jim yelled.

"My god, I'm surprised it took them this long to find her then!" Bird yelled, with shock and desperation in her tone.

"This is on you, Dent!" Jim yelled, charging back towards him in such a way that it looked like he might actually throw a punch at Harvey, and as mad as Bird was she doubted she'd have tried to stop him if he did.

"Whoa, alright… I'll stipulate mea culpa, kick my ass –be my guest." He said, looking to Jim who stood at least a few inches shorter than he did, "But lets find Lovecraft first, get him to call off the killers."

"He's not at home." Jim breathed, taking a step back and resisting the urge to strike Harvey, "He's not at his office, he could have already left Gotham or someone could be hiding him."

Rushing around to the other side of his desk and rummaging through some loose papers, Harvey explained, "Lovecraft has a few condos that he keeps under his mistresses name. One up in Stevensburg and one uptown."

"We'll start with the one uptown." Jim announced, looking over the paper that he'd been handed.  
"We should split up, I can go to the one in Stevensburg." Bird offered, thinking that they could cover twice as much ground separate.

Jim started to agree but then remembered, "You rode with me."

Bird looked over to Harvey, intending to tell him she needed to borrow his car, but he surprised her when he offered, "I'll drive."

 **~()~**

It was much later that day that Harvey was sitting in his car, staring at what looked to be an abandoned building that Bird had entered nearly ten minutes ago.

Letting out a heavy sigh he drummed his hands against the steering wheel and fought the urge to go inside and make sure that she was okay.

As she'd let him know several times since leaving his office earlier that day, he'd done enough damage, something he was very much aware of. He wanted to fix things now, but it seemed like Bird was getting more done than he was.

When they'd gone to Lovecraft's condo in Stevensburg, he wasn't sure what was said between the on-site manager of the building and Bird, but whatever she'd said had done the trick and he'd let them into the condo.  
It was empty and it turned out to be a tension filled long drive to and from the building with Bird, and ultimately a waste of their time and efforts.

Not that it even mattered anymore, the last they'd heard from Jim was that he'd found Lovecraft at his uptown place, but they'd barely have time to speak before the same assassins that showed up at Wayne Manor came for Lovecraft and killed him.  
As it turned out he wasn't the one who'd put the hit out on Selina after all, he wasn't near as close to the top of the food chain as they'd all thought.

Since finding out about Lovecraft's murder, Bird had instructed Harvey to drive her to several locations deep in the heart of Gotham City –though she wouldn't let him go inside with her to any of them. She claimed the people she needed to talk to would probably mistake him for a cop and scatter before she'd get the chance to speak with them.

He had also noticed she wouldn't call anyone from inside of the car where he could hear her phone conversations. Knowing she'd spent the last few years working in a nightclub, he'd imagined she was probably familiar with some unsavory characters, but watching the way in which she easily navigated the worst parts of Gotham –like she knew it as well as the back of her hand, had left him with several questions that he wasn't sure he'd even want the answers to.

Looking back to the building, be breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw Bird emerge and jog towards the car.

"I think I know where they are." She said in a rushed voice as she got into the car, in a less than confident tone she admitted, "Or at least where they'd be heading next.

Not giving him time to ask any questions, she explained, "Selina's been on these streets for a while and she knows how to disappear, my brother obviously doesn't fit the part. So I figured they might have stopped by The Flea to get him new clothes-"

"The Flea?" Harvey questioned.

"Yeah." she nodded towards the building she'd just came out of, "It's where a lot of street kids hang out, swap and sell clothes and other things they've stolen."

The confused look on his face grew as he wondered how she'd even know about it, let alone where to find the place.

"But they weren't in there?" Harvey tried to follow along with her scattered story.

"No, but I did find Mario Pepper's daughter, Ivy, in there. It cost me a hundred dollars for the information, but she said that Selina was asking her about where this new fence Clyde has been working from." Bird said, motioning for him to start the car as she added, "I've crossed paths with him a few times and he's about as shady as they come, so it's really not a stretch to guess that for the right price he'd sell them to the killers."

Harvey stayed silent as he started the car and followed her instructions on where to go, but he kept glancing at her from the corner of his eye. He couldn't help but feel like her latest idea might lead them to a dead end, after all she'd bought the information off of the daughter of the man who'd been framed for her parents murders –and then was killed when the police tried to apprehend him.

 **~()~**

When they pulled up around the side of the building where Bird learned Clyde was working out of, she started to open her door but Harvey stopped her as the sounds of close by gunfire cut through the night.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his tone frantic as he grabbed onto her arm to stop her from getting out of the car.

"Saving my brother." She answered with confidence in her tone, as she tried to get away but he stopped her again.

"We called Jim, he and Bullock are probably already here… can you not hear the gunshots?" He yelled at her, his eyes wide with fear that if she went into that building –she might not make it back out alive.

"I hear it." She nodded, jerking her arm away from his grip as she looked at him, her eyes bore into his as she said, "The shots are all coming from the front of the building, you'll probably be the safest staying right here. I'm going to save my brother."

As she got out of the car and started to cross the street she heard another car door shut and turned to see he was following her.

"What are you-"

"You're going to get yourself killed!" He whisper yelled at her, "If you're going in there then I'm coming with you."

"Harvey, listen to me." She hissed, stepping closer to him, "If we both go in there than I'm going to be worried about you and I need to solely focus on finding my brother and keeping myself alive along the way. You have to trust me."

He'd never seen such a serious look in her eyes before, it was clear she thought she was going to fare just fine against the trained killers in the building –she seemed so sure that it was almost enough for him to believe it too.

"Please!" She pleaded with him to stay outside of the building and safe while she went inside, her voice came out with a whimper of desperation and each passing second felt like she was running out of time.

"Promise me that if I let you go in there, you'll come back out in one piece." He helplessly breathed, his voice thick with defeat.

The only answer he got was a nod from Bird, before she took off running for the building and left him standing in the street with the feeling of his heart sinking into his stomach.

 **~()~**

Using the dumpster next to the building as a means to boost herself up high enough, Bird grabbed onto the metal ladder from the fire escape and tried to pull it down, but when it wouldn't budge she used all of her upper-body strength to pull herself up onto the first metal landing.

Taking her jacket off, she balled it up around her hand and used it to break the window.

Hearing glass shattering, Bullock looked up from where he was taking cover behind his car from the criminals returning fire just in time to see Bird slip into the building through the now broken window.

"What the hell…" He breathed, shaking his head. It was just moments ago that Alfred had shot his way past a few of the men and entered the building. This was going to end badly, he thought, by the time the night was over they were sure to have a stack of bodies.  
"Am I the only one who waits for back up in this town?" He muttered to himself.

Bird hadn't been inside the building for long, ducking in the shadows and keeping a close eye on her surroundings when she heard Alfred yell, "Bruce!" From the floor below, though she doubted if her brother was in the building that he'd be able to hear anything over the barrage of gun fire being exchanged out front, not to mention the several shots she'd heard on the level below.

Her eyes drifted up to the ceiling above her where she heard a noise comparable to heavy boxes being pushed across rough cement.

Quickly locating the stairs, she took them what felt like three at a time until she reached the top and stopped to looked around. Off to the right she caught the sight of old filing cabinets and boxes stacked up –an ideal place to try and hide for a terrified thirteen year old, she thought to herself.

Walking into the room, she scanned the floor in the moonlight from the window looking for shoe prints or drag marks through the dust coated surface. She didn't have much time in her search before she became aware of approaching footsteps from outside of the room.  
Ducking down beside a dark filing cabinet, she raised up just far enough to see a man entering the room. She didn't see a weapon in his hands, but she had no doubt he probably had one on him.

Something she couldn't say for herself, she hadn't had the time to spare or time away from Harvey long enough to be able to arm herself.

Waiting until he started to walk past where she was crouched down, Bird swung her leg and brought him down with a hard thud and a groan.

Just as quickly as she moved to get to her feet, he was also standing back on his own two legs. Bird ducked to the side when the man took a swing at her, using the opportunity of his center being unguarded from the fight stance he'd taken, she made her own move with lightning fast speed, swinging her arm up and forcefully landing a hit with the heel of her palm to underneath his chin. His head snapped backwards from the force and he fell to the floor, out cold from the uppercut.

Bird spun around, ready to take on her next threat when she heard a box slide but quickly dropped her defensive pose when she saw it was her brother crawling out from his hiding place. Scrambling to his feet, Bruce raced to his older sister's side and threw his arms around her.

Wrapping an arm around him, she pulled in a relieved breath and silently thanked a God she wasn't sure she believed in for her brother being alive and unharmed.

"Where's Selina?" Bird asked, knowing they weren't out of danger just yet.

"She escaped through the window." He admitted. Knowing that the killers weren't after him, he'd created a distraction and ran in the opposite direction so Selina could slip out of the building unnoticed.

When her brother hugged her again, holding her tightly and thinking to himself that he'd never been happier to see her in his entire life. She gently pushed him back, with an apologetic look she said, "We're not in the clear yet. We still have to get out."

He nodded rapidly in response to her words, and she looked at him as she said, "I heard Alfred downstairs, if something happens –you need to run. Okay? Head for the stairs and don't look back, don't stop running until you either find Alfred or you get outside."

His eyebrows furrowed with fear as he realized she more or less meant if something happened to her, he was supposed to make a run for it.

"Okay?" She repeated in a gruff whisper and he gave a short nod in response.

"Stay behind me." She instructed, as she carefully made her way to the doorway and looked out.

As far as she could tell the path was clear, and she nodded for him to follow her. He'd stayed close behind her as they navigated their way down to the second floor, he tried to listen for footsteps, but the only thing he could hear was the sound of his rapidly beating heart seeming to be echoing around in his skull.

They picked up speed when they reached an empty hallway, but before they could make it to the end a man stepped out of one of the open doorways with a gun pointed at them.

Bird quickly came to a halt; throwing her arm out and pushing her brother back, where he stumbled and fell to the floor, she then stood in front of him using her own body to shield him from danger.

His eyes were wide with terror as he peeked around her to get a look at the gunman. She'd told him if they got into danger, he was supposed to run and in truth he wanted to. But in his mind all he could see was violent images of the night his parents had been killed right in front of him.  
It almost felt like this night was a continuation from that –it seemed like his sister was about to meet the exact same fate and he hated himself for the paralyzed feeling setting in to his body, one that wouldn't even allow his vocal chords to work –let alone his legs or arms to move.

"Where's the girl?" The man questioned in a cold tone.

"What girl?" Bird replied with gravel in her voice.

The man scoffed, looking almost amused by her bravery, or in his mind stupidity.

Raising the gun higher he pointed it at the center of her forehead and said, "You've got one more chance, so think your answer over."

Glancing behind her to make sure her brother was still on the ground, Bird ducked her head knowing that when she grabbed his hands the gun was going to go off whether he'd mean for it to or not.  
As she ducked out of the way, she reached up and grabbed tightly onto his hands as she lunged forward and kicked him in the groin. A shot was fired into the ceiling and he let out a loud pained groan from the kick she'd delivered, his body started to double over and she brought her knee up getting him square in the stomach. With that she was able to pull the gun from his hands and quickly used it to hit him as hard as she could on the side of his head.

Bruce stared in a state of complete shock as his eyes moved between where his sister was standing and where the man who'd threatened them was now motionless on the floor.

Keeping the gun on him, she kicked his side to make sure he really was unconscious and not planning a sneak attack on them.

"Let's go." She said extending a hand to her brother, who was still wearing a stunned expression as she helped get him to his feet.

Just as they reached the stairs to get down to the first floor, they met up with Alfred who was heading up to continue his search for Bruce.

"Alfred!" Bruce exclaimed, his voice cracking slightly before he cleared his throat and tried to make light of the situation, "Fancy seeing you here."

"You alright?" He questioned, looking between the siblings.

Bird nodded before she turned sideways and back against the wall to keep an eye for anyone trying to sneak up on them.

"I'm alright." Bruce answered, "How are you?"

With a smile, Alfred tucked the gun he'd been carrying into an interior pocket on his jacket and climbed up the stairs to where he was standing. "You really scared me, Master Bruce. If you die… well, who employees butlers anymore."

Bruce looked back to his sister who was still armed and watching out for all them, and then back to Alfred as he leaned forward and hugged him. He was safe, with both of them there, he finally felt safe again.

Bird watched them with a small smile on her lips. She didn't want to break up the moment but she was also aware that they still weren't out of danger.

"I've got two men out cold up here… we should probably get going before they start waking up." She announced.

"Right!" Alfred exclaimed, giving Bruce another tight squeeze before he stepped back and pulled his gun back out just in case they ran into any trouble.

Navigating their way through the first floor of the building, they quickly found Detective Gordon and his partner, Bullock. As the trio walked through the large open doorway into the room, Bullock looked up from where he was handcuffing someone and breathed, "I'll be damned."

Jim glanced at his partner and then followed his line of sight until he saw Bruce standing unharmed between Alfred and Bird. It felt like at least a hundred pounds had lifted off his shoulders and he exclaimed, "Oh, thank God."

"I'm glad you're alright." He said to Bruce as he walked up to them and looked him over.

"I'm fine." He assured him, looking to either side where Alfred and his sister were standing as he smiled and repeated, "I'm fine."

"I got this off one of the men." Bird said, spinning the gun in her hand and offering it to Jim with the handle towards him.

As he took the weapon from her she said, "I ran into trouble on the second and third floor, there's two guys-"

"Dead?" Jim guessed. He'd seen the violent way in which she handled situations before and this entire night could easily be claimed as self-defense.

"Out cold." Bird corrected with raised eyebrows before her gaze darted to where her little brother was standing.

Jim motioned to a couple officers and instructed them to do a sweep of the upper floors and arrest anyone they came across. Once they were gone he looked back to Bruce and asked, "What about Selina?"

"She got away." He answered, not giving much detail on how that had happened.

"Okay." Jim nodded, her being back out on the streets wasn't ideal, but it was certainly better than the worst case scenario.

"Let's get you all out of here." He said, managing a smile at them, before he pulled another officer to the side and asked him to give them a ride back to Wayne Manor.

The air outside felt much colder than when Bird had gone into the building, there was a bitterness in the night and the chill cut right through her clothes. As they came to a stop by the police car they'd been led too, she looked around and caught sight of Harvey standing next to his own car not far away from where they were.

Even at distance she could see the relieved look on his face. She knew she should go over there and talk to him, but for many reasons she couldn't. Her brother was safe now and that was all that really mattered, though she was still angry at Harvey for his involvement in the entire situation. He hadn't intentionally put her brother in danger, he didn't even know who the witness was at the time, let alone that she was staying at Wayne Manor –but he'd still made a stupid move and the night could have been ending in a very different way.

Plus, she'd seen the quizzical looks he'd been giving her all day when they were following leads around Gotham. She had a feeling he had several questions for her and she didn't have the energy to answer them, especially knowing the price she might pay for telling the truth. It could possibly cost her –her relationship with him.  
Giving him a nod to let him know she was alright, Bird got into the backseat of the car with her brother and didn't look back as she waited for Alfred to get in up front and then the officer drove them away from the scene.

* * *

 **A/N - I hope you all liked the chapter! Bird is going to have some explaining to do the next time she talks to Harvey, huh?  
**

 **Thanks to everyone who has followed and/or added this story to your favorites! ^_^**

 **I'd also like to thank xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, MzzLightwood, Miss E Charlotte, SwingingOnAStar, Love. Fiction, 2016, and Captivating for the reviews on my last chapter. You guys are amazing for being so supportive!**


	26. Bedroom Hymns

**XXVI**

 _"We always see our worst selves. Our most vulnerable selves. We need someone else to get close enough to tell us we're wrong. Someone we trust." ― David Levithan_

 _A/N - In case anyone is uncomfortable with it, I just wanted to give a heads up that there is a rather heated scene towards the end of the chapter. Happy reading._

* * *

Sitting up in his bed, Bruce reached for the light on his bedside table as he announced, "I'm still awake."

With a small chuckle, Bird walked the rest of the way into her younger brothers room and stopped next to his bed as she admitted, "I was just coming to check on you before I went home."

"I'm fine." He assured her, looking down to the dark blue plush comforter on his bed as he pulled in a breath and thought out loud, "When I was younger, I couldn't understand why you never wanted to be at home. Every morning on the TV and in the newspaper it was all bad news, more muggings and murders and then nearly every night you'd sneak out to go into the city and I never understood why."

Bird's eyebrows lowered in confusion and concern as she stared and waited for him to go on, it was clear he had more to say.

"I think I can better understand it after today." He admitted, adjusting on his mattress to sit up farther. "There's an entire other world outside of these walls. I can see the appeal of it now, the freedom of being out in the city like that."

"Bruce, you were nearly killed today." She said, shaking her head back and forth.

Breaking his eye contact he argued, "You've had worse happen to you in Gotham and it didn't stop you from going into the city."

Her jaw tensed at his words and she took a moment to pull in a deep breath before she spoke.

"Bruce, you are thirteen years old. Alfred and I both told you to run, but we didn't mean disappear into Gotham for most of the day. There are so many pay phones or places you could have gone into and used a phone to call Alfred or Jim, or me! You can always call me and I will come get you, no matter what. You had us completely worried sick, we didn't know if you were hurt or worse! You cannot just take off like that, it was dangerous and stupid and…"

Her voice trailed off and he slowly nodded as he guessed, "Irresponsible?"

"Oh my god…" She breathed, sitting down on the foot of his bed with a dazed look in her eyes as she realized, "I sound like mom. I've been on the opposite end of lectures like this more times than I can count."

He watched as his sister seemed rather distressed by the revelation and her face contorted with a stunned expression before she rubbed her hands over her face and sighed, "I don't want to do this, I don't want to yell or lecture you. You know right from wrong; you know better than to run off like you did today."

"I got caught up in the moment." He admitted, "I wanted to call someone at first, let you know I was alright, but then we were far enough in the city that Selina was sure we weren't still being followed and being in the city started to be… fun."

"I understand that." Bird nodded, knowing she was in no position at all to lecture him over things that didn't come close to what she was doing at his age, "You just… you can't do stuff like that, okay? And if you get into some kind of trouble, you can _always_ call me."

He nodded, he did feel guilty knowing how he'd caused everyone to worry about him by running off with Selina, but even knowing that he wouldn't take it back.

"I won't do it again." He promised, "It was an experience I'll never forget though. It was nice even, to feel so… alive."

Her head cocked to the side as she watched him and her heart fluttered in her chest with a sense of fear. That was exactly what she thought as a teenager too, that being in the city –being that close to danger made her feel alive in ways that being in the walls of Wayne Manor never could.

"What?" He questioned.

"I just don't think I realized before how much alike we are." She quietly admitted, wishing she could just wrap him in bubble wrap and keep him safe from any danger he could ever face.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?" He asked, seeing the expression on her face.

"It is." She replied, her voice harsher than she'd mean for it to be. "You being anything like me is bad."

"I don't think so." He countered, adjusting the way he was sitting and his eyes widened as he said, "I wish I could be more like you. When that man threatened us with a gun, I couldn't move. I was so scared that I literally couldn't even get up from the floor and you fought back. Starling, you didn't back down at all –you weren't even afraid. You just went for the gun and brought him down so fast. I've never seen anything like that."

Breaking eye contact, she stared down to the bed and bit down on the side of her tongue.

"Alfred is teaching me to fight, but he's never shown me anything like that." He added, waiting for her to look back at him, but when she didn't he asked, "Will you teach me how you did that?"

"No."

"Why not? If I learn to fight like that then-"

"You've got Alfred and I to fight those fights for you, you don't need to." Bird cut him off, as she started to stand up.

But he wasn't going to accept no for an answer, "If you won't teach me then I deserve a real explanation."

Sitting back down, there was a haunted look in her eyes as she finally looked back at him and answered, "Because it comes at a price."

His eyebrows knotted in confusion and her answer gave him a million more questions, but he didn't say anything. He could tell she was struggling with something and he waited in silence hoping that she'd talk to him.

"Knowing how to defend yourself in a situation like that doesn't remove your fear. Bruce, no matter how skilled you are –if someone points a gun at your face, you're gonna be scared. Let me ask you something; when Alfred and you are boxing… do you think it's fun?"

"Yes." He answered with an innocent expression.

"Yeah? Well, this isn't. Being in a fight for your life isn't fun." Their eyes locked and she admitted in a cold sounding tone, "When I hit him with the gun, if I hadn't knocked him out and he made another move, do you know what would have happened? I'd have shot him in the face –no hesitation, no second guessing. I would have killed him so that we could have gotten away. I'd have killed him to keep you safe."

Running her tongue over her lips she raised a hand and pointed at her head as she added, "I go into this void in my head, this blank state where I don't actively feel emotions or anything really. In situations like that, I have to. I can't be thinking about the other person –about how they mean something to someone. That they could be a parent or someone's husband or wife, a brother or a sister –it doesn't matter. Because in those moments, I can't think about them as a human being. I have to see them as a threat that needs to be eliminated and I have to be ready mentally prepared to take that next step."

His head lowered and the seriousness of what she was saying started to feel like a weight pressing down on him. She had told him before that it was just as much as a mental thing as it was physical, but he didn't fully understand how true that was.

"That sort of thing changes you, it chips away at your soul." She explained, seeing the look on his face she gave a weak shrug, "Sitting where you are now; you probably can't or don't understand it and that's a good thing."

"What your saying is that sometimes to fight a monster, you could turn into one yourself?" He asked with his voice just barely above a whisper.

"Something like that." She whispered back.

He fought with himself over the question that was on the tip of his tongue as he watched her stand up and smooth the blanket out from where she'd been sitting on his bed.

Finally he asked, "Have you killed someone before?"

"It's late and you need to get some sleep." She said, as if she didn't hear his question.

"Wait-" He started to protest, but didn't get the chance when she leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of his head and said, "Goodnight little brother."

He let out a heavy sigh when she switched the lamp on his bedside table off and left his room, pulling the door shut behind her.

 **~(Later that night)~**

Crossing through her dark living room, Bird looked through the peephole in her door before she reached for the switch to turn the lights on and unlocked her door.

"Harvey?" She greeted, with a confused expression, "It's the middle of the night…"

Her voice trailed off as he walked into her apartment and she could see under the long tan coat he always wore; he was in blue striped lounge pants and a plain white t-shirt.

"And you're in your pajamas." She added.

"I couldn't sleep." He admitted, watching as she shut and locked the door back. "I was with you all day and I don't think I ever once told you I was sorry for my involvement with what happened."

"You spent all day scared that you were going to lose your brother and it was mostly my fault. If I'd known that it would have endangered someone you cared about…" His voice trailed off and he shook his head back and forth, "It doesn't even matter. I should have been so much more vigilant about what I said to anyone about it."

His normally perfectly combed and styled hair was disheveled, and there was an almost frantic look on his face. He'd told her he couldn't sleep and from the looks of it, he had gotten out of bed, pulled his coat on and drove right to her apartment.

"It's okay." She said, her eyes closing as she blew out a breath and backtracked, "I mean it's not okay, but I'm not mad at you anymore. I was earlier, but staying mad would have made me the biggest hypocrite. I only cared so much because it put my brother in danger. If it had been a different witness staying somewhere else, then it sounds terrible but I probably wouldn't have cared."

"So, there you go… a clear conscience and all. I hope you can sleep now." She softly said, as she avoided his eyes.  
Since she'd gotten home, there had been a sinking feeling in her stomach every time she thought about him. Her relationship with him was more important to her than she'd ever expected and the idea of him leaving her made it feel like she'd been opened up and something had been taken from her, but she'd been preparing for things to end the next time they talked to each other.

She'd even planned out a speech in her head and logged all of the reasons they should end it now before things got deeper between them and she'd only end up even more heartbroken.

"You say you're not angry with me, but you certainly aren't acting like we're okay." He pointed out, as he stepped closer and tried to reach for her, but she moved away from his touch and asked in weak voice, "What if we're not okay, Harvey?"

Seeing the look on his face she internally kicked herself for tears she could feel stinging at her eyes, she'd sworn she wouldn't cry over this –over him.

"Don't give me that look." She sighed, breaking eye contact. "I saw how you looked at me all day, like you had things you wanted to ask me. Are you here because you couldn't sleep over your own guilt or because you've got things you need to ask me?"

"Both." He admitted, "I think what you did today was amazing. I spoke to Jim after you left and he said that two of the men arrested were ones that you brought down on the way to saving your brother. You've told me so many times that you can take care of yourself, and I never doubted that… but I feel like you're holding something back."

Stepping closer and trying to get her to look at him, he continued, "Actually, from the beginning I always felt like there were things you weren't telling me."

"What do you want to know?" She asked, only glancing at him for a second before she crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.

"How did you know about The Flea and all the other places you had me drive you to today? Now, I feel like I know Gotham pretty well and I've seen some of the worst parts of the city, but you knew your way around like-"

"Like I've been running the streets since I was a teenager?"

She looked up as she finished his sentence for him and he nodded with an expression on his face she couldn't quite read.

With a shallow breath she said, "After they adopted me, my mom and dad tried to keep me as close as possible. Sure, I never wanted for anything, but I always felt like I wasn't ever good enough. Like I was some imposter living in a house and wearing clothes that didn't even belong to me, it might sound crazy but I felt sort of trapped. As I got older and gained more freedom and started being at home less and less, I was happier out in the city. I wasn't judged, no one was constantly breathing down my neck or telling me to act or dress a certain way. I know the darkest parts of the city because I did run those streets as a teenager."

"Okay." He nodded accepting the answer, "The thing is you still seemed to know those locations and the people there like you'd only seen them days ago."

"What do you want me to say?" She asked, seeming irritated by his pushing her.

"I want the truth!" He yelled, catching them both off guard by the outburst.

Closing his eyes he pulled in a calming breath and when he opened his eyes everything seemed fine again as he said, "I just want the truth. Whatever it is that you're afraid to open up to me about, I swear you don't need to be. Just be honest, that's all I'm asking here."

"You know, they say you should be careful what you ask for." She countered, but there was a somber tone of defeat in her voice. Like any fight she'd had in her was long since gone.

"I'm not… normal." She fought to get the words out, "I was shot two times and left to die in an alley when I was fifteen." Not able to stomach telling him how she'd been raped before the attempted murder, she left that part of her story out.

"Something broke inside of me that night, broke so bad that I couldn't bring myself to speak a word for six months after it. My parents tried to help me through it, but no matter how much they tried to take care of me it didn't matter. I'd almost died and that night I knew that evil was real, bad people were lurking in the shadows and the world never looked the same to me again." Her chin quivered and she bit down hard on her tongue until she was sure her voice wouldn't crack as she continued, "It's dark now. It's dark out there and it's dark in here." She finished, pointing to her head.

Harvey stared back at her unable to think of what to say next. He wanted to know who'd hurt her, wanted to rip them apart and make them suffer for what they'd done to her just as much as he wanted to hold her and swear on his life that he'd never let anyone hurt her like that again.

He'd seen so many cases come across his desk with violent offenders and victims who no matter how much they tried to come to terms with what had happened to them, they couldn't.

It made sense, he thought, after what she'd been through as a child and already having trouble seeing the world as a warm place that a violent attack like that later in life would only confirm those fears.

"I'm going to bet you were able to bring down assassins because you probably put a lot of time and energy into never feeling like a victim again?" He softly said.

Her arm and hand laid across her stomach, and she swallowed hard as she nodded, "It's a tough world out there and the only way I felt like I could survive in it was to be tougher. You have to understand that every person I crossed paths with after that felt like a possible threat and I was so scared all of the time, the only way I could even begin to function after that was to know I would never be that weak again. I spent years conditioning myself both physically and mentally to always be prepared and able to fight."

Harvey's eyes drifted down her midsection as he noticed her holding onto her stomach and side like she was wounded and it slowly started to dawn on him that might have been why she'd never even let him pull her shirt off.

Stepping closer, he reached for her hand and this time she didn't pull away from him, but she still was barely looking at him.

"I'm sorry. I know you're probably sick of hearing that, but I hate that you went through that." Swallowing hard he questioned, "You're holding onto your stomach is that where you were shot?"

She nodded, "My stomach and side."

His chest felt heavy when he fought for a breath to asked, "Is that why you never wanted to take your shirt-"

"Yeah." She cut him off, "I hate my scars and I knew you'd probably take one look at them…" She cleared her throat, "Their ugly."

"I wish you'd told me sooner." He calmly said, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand as he spoke.

"I was afraid of what you'd think." She admitted.

"I think that those scars are a permanent reminder of how life tried to break you and how you fought back and lived. I think that you're the bravest person I've ever met and even if you can't always see it, you are beautiful inside and out and that my life is a thousand times better having you in it-"

"Stop it." She scoffed, pulling her hand away from him, "Just stop being so understanding and always having the right thing to say. My god, it just makes me feel so much worse!"

Taking a few steps back from him her voice raised as she admitted, "You want the truth, Harvey? The truth is that I'm not the person you think I am."

"What are you talking about?" He questioned, taking a step closer, but she backed up farther away from him.

"Have you heard of Fish Mooney?" Bird asked.

With a slow nod he answered, "She's an underboss of Falcone's."

Bird nodded, "An underboss of Carmine Falcone and _my_ _boss_ at work. You see, she's the one who found me in the alley when I almost died. If she hadn't found me or took the time to help me then I would have died. All my life I'd been taught to be afraid of people involved with the crime families in Gotham, but when someone tried to kill me –she saved me. That's how I got involved with nightclubs, I went to thank her once I was better and it was an entirely different world than I'd known before and I fit in there. I fit into that world because I couldn't just fall back into my old life, I wasn't the same person."

Harvey stared back at Bird, in truth he'd already thought she probably worked at a location in one of the boss's territories with her reluctance to let him know where she worked –he couldn't pretend that he didn't see something like this coming.  
And maybe if it had been anyone else, he would have left without looking back. No wonder she'd seemed to think his idea of cleaning up Gotham was impossible –if battle lines were drawn she could have very well been standing on the other side.

He couldn't help but feel like she'd never fully gotten a chance in life, not that –that was an excuse. She knew right from wrong and had willingly picked the wrong side, but he couldn't deny that she was living in a world of gray area where it wasn't so easy to blame her for the choices she'd made.

"And on our first date when I ran off and did that press conference with the mayor, I only agreed to it because the person who called me at dinner was Falcone, himself. I didn't exactly get the feeling that I had a choice in the matter." She threw out another truth he wasn't expecting, though now he got the feeling she was just trying to run him off.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this sooner?" He demanded to know.

"You are so against the corruption in this city that you won't even dine at places owned by Falcone or Maroni! I liked you from the beginning, probably too much and I knew as soon as you found out; you'd be gone and it was stupid and selfish, but I guess I was just prolonging the inevitable." She admitted, her own voice raised to match his tone.

"My god." He breathed rubbing his forehead, "Couldn't you tell that I liked you enough to at least hear you out, even from the beginning? Life isn't clear cut, it's not black and white and no one is perfect."

Her eyebrows furrowed at his words and she motioned to him as she said, "Some of us are a lot closer to perfection than others."

"Me?" He asked, gathering that she'd directed the comment at him, "I'm nowhere near perfect, Starling. And I know what you're trying to do, you're trying to push me away. You think I'm really that easily scared off? What? That I don't have it in me to try and see things from your side?"

"You're not near as talented at hiding things as you think you are." He spoke in a gruff tone.  
Taking in a shallow breath that didn't even feel like it reached his lungs, he said, "I can't stand here and pretend like I didn't see any of this coming, more like I ignored all of the signs and didn't ask the questions I should have been asking all along. In some ways it's just as much my fault as it is yours."

"What are you saying?" Bird questioned.

"You're listing all these things out like you're trying to give me reason after reason to just throw my hands up and call it quits, like you're trying to convince me that you're some bad person… but I don't think that's it at all. I may not have known everything, but I still know you and you are a good person. You got mixed up with the wrong people at a point in your life when you were the most vulnerable and it shaped you in ways you never intended it too." He explained, it was clear to him that she wasn't nearly as happy and complacent with where her life had gotten her as she pretended to be.

"Falcone and the people like him run Gotham and the people in it with fear. I know that you can't just stop showing up to work one day and turn your back on everything, but there are steps you can take to start distancing yourself-"

"You think I'm saying I want to quit?" She asked, with a stunned expression.

"I don't think you like where your choices have gotten you." He pointed out, and saw the stubborn look on her face as she shook her head back and forth in a silent argument.

"If you had a chance to do it all over, would you do things differently?" Harvey asked.

"It's not so simple. There are parts I'd do differently, but other parts I don't think I'd change." She quietly admitted.

"Is working for criminals the kind of life you'd have chosen for yourself?" He pushed.

Swallowing hard and almost hating herself for admitting it she shook her head back and forth, "No."

He could see the pain in her eyes when she answered him, telling the truth might have been as difficult and as painful as pulling teeth, but it felt worth it to him. The fact that she admitted she wanted something else meant more to him than the wrongs she'd done.

"But time machines don't exist and working for criminals makes me just as guilty as they are and it's no secret how much you hate criminals." She said, keeping her voice surprisingly strong as she spoke, "I guess it's better to know where we stand now then for this to come out further down the road."

The composure she'd been keeping started to fade and she cleared her throat, "I am sorry for not being honest." Looking away from him her eyes landed on the clothes basket sitting on her coffee table and she picked it up as an excuse to leave the room and said, "You can let yourself out."

Once she was in her room, she dropped the basked to the floor next to her bed and pulled in an unsteady breath as she tried to keep her pain and tears at bay; after all this was a hole she'd knowingly dug herself into.

"Do you really want me to go?"

Her back stiffened when she heard his voice from just behind her, she'd been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't heard him following her.

"Does it matter?" She whispered the question, feeling like it was a waste of breath.

"It does to me." Harvey said back, his voice was as soft and quiet as hers was.

It took Bird a few moments to be sure that she wasn't going to break down in front of him, she slowly turned around to face him as she asked, "After everything I told you, why are you still here?"

"Here." He said nodding towards the edge of the bed as he took her hand and sat down getting her to sit with him. For the first time in a while she actually made and maintained eye contact with him and he said, "I'm not okay with your job, or who you work for, or that you kept so much from me, but most of all I'm not okay with you just deciding on your own that I'm going to leave after hearing that. You think you've got it all figured out, but you don't."

Time seemed to stand still as he stared into her eyes, he had her right there in front of him –she was safe and because of that he couldn't care that she hadn't been entirely honest about certain things with him.

Harvey ran his thumb across her bottom lip as he said, "I love you."

Bird's eyebrows furrowed in response, she'd played several conversations over in her head for the last few hours, trying to prepare for what would be said the next time she saw him. But what he'd just told her hadn't happened in a single rehearsal she'd ran through.

"Harvey, there is a lot about me that-"

"I don't care." He insisted with a look of desperation in his eyes that resembled the look on his face when she'd ran into the building to save her brother, "I love you." He repeated.

Pulling in a deep breath he admitted, "When you ran into that building earlier tonight… I was so afraid that I was going to lose you and Starling that was the worst feeling I have ever known. I don't even possess the words to describe how much you mean to me."

Her room fell into a heavy silence as he waited on her to say something; to say anything at all.

"When you first asked me to dinner, that day in your office, do you remember what I told you?" She asked, her voice coming out a shaky whisper as she stared at him with widened eyes.

A little thrown from the questioned he breathed, "Uh…"

"I said we were doomed." She reminded him, "Remember? I tried to tell you we were two very different people and it would all end in heartbreak."

"Do you still think that?" He questioned, taking one of her hands in his. Somewhere inside he felt like if he wasn't touching her she might somehow slip away.

"I think…" Her voice trailed off and she ran her tongue over her lips, which still tasted of his kiss. "I think that I never liked the sound of my name until I heard it from your lips, and that being with you terrifies the hell out of me. I spent years brushing emotions off because I saw them as a weakness. I spent so long being numb to nearly everything and with you I can't do that."

Looking down to their still connected hands, her grip tightened and she pulled in an unsteady breath in between her parted lips before saying, "Every moment I spend with you… I feel like I'm slowly waking up from a five year slumber and sometimes being wide-awake can be painful."

"Yeah?" He whispered, his voice barely audible over the sounds of traffic below, "You can't have consciousness without pain. It's life –you have to take the good with the bad. But aren't those moments where you feel whole; those moments of true happiness worth it?"

"I wouldn't know… I haven't had many of those." She carefully admitted, tucking her hair behind her ears with her free hand. Finally looking back up to him she said, "I'm not so sure I know who I am anymore, but I know that I'm in love with you and I don't ever want to lose that feeling."

She saw a corner of his mouth start to turn up into a smile and she couldn't help but offer a small smile back. Bird knew he was right, life was full of both good and bad and to open herself up to one meant opening up to both. Maybe later on the worst of the bad would come, the terrible things she'd done would catch up and begin haunting her, she'd deal with that when it happened.

For now, she felt almost feather light.

Harvey Dent was one of the most amazing people she'd ever met and he more than just loved her, the way he kissed her, his every single touch was like he needed her. It was an indescribable feeling that flooded over her and with it she was starting to feel like an entire person. A whole being –instead of mismatched puzzle pieces sewn together with edges that never matched up.

"I love you." Her dimples showed with the repeated admission and for the first time all night she had a feeling of hope; hope that they might really have a chance at making things work and hope that she could be a better person then the one she'd turned into.

"And I love you." Harvey replied, brushing her hair out of her face, before leaning in and claiming her lips in a fervent kiss; his tongue sought out sanctuary in her mouth and he could have sworn the temperature of the room was rising steadily, twenty degrees at a time with no sign of slowing down.

His hands crept under the side and back of her shirt when he pulled her closer to him and instead of shying away like she usually did, she matched the force of his kiss and the feeling of his warm hands against her bare flesh caused her to moan against his lips.

She could do this, she thought, she wanted him so bad that every inch of her body felt like it was screaming for his touch. She loved him, trusted him and as she reached down and grasped onto the bottom of his shirt to pull it up over his head, she did so with the hope that how she felt about him would be enough to drive the fear out that would normally shut the situation down before it progressed much further.

Once his shirt was gone, she took in the sight of his bare upper body with a new found sense of hunger. Her finger tips grazed over the hair on his chest, it felt like everything about him was driving her crazy.

As her eyes traveled down farther to the line of hair on his stomach leading down past his belly button and disappearing beneath the waistband of his pants, her breath hitched in her throat.

Looking back up to his face, she stared at him for a moment with her heart racing wildly away inside of her chest before she pulled his face back to hers.

Her head tilted back and she fought for a breath as he trailed his mouth down to the side of her neck, the sweltering sensation of his mouth and tongue against her skin took what breath she'd stored in her lungs away.

She was so absorbed in the moment with him and all of the feelings coursing through her, that she almost didn't even register it when he started to slide her shirt up. When he felt her body tense from the action, he pressed a reassuring kiss to her mouth, letting her know that he didn't care about her scars when he pulled back and breathed against her ear, "I love you, I love everything about you –scarred or not."

He was saying all the right things, but inside she still feared he'd be turned off by the bullet wound scars, after all she could barely stand to look at them herself and they were marks on her own body.

Pulling in a ragged breath she gave him a small nod and allowed him to pull the thin fabric off over her head leaving her in her black and purple print bra, almost instantly his mouth was back on hers and she held onto him when he started to lean in against her, trying to get her to lie back on the bed.

Trying to keep her thoughts entirely there in the moment with him and not let her mind drift, she slowly laid back, starring up at him as he moved over her and she leaned up some, lips crashing into his with a silent need, begging him to distract her from the steadily growing feeling of uncertainty.

Her finger tips dug into his back, as she clutched onto him with the same urgency her kiss displayed. When she pulled back from the kiss, their lips were still touching, both of them breathing in each others air and Bird felt dizzy.

Dropping her head back against her pillow, she roughly bit down on her bottom lip when he started to kiss down the center of her chest. Her body trembled under his, and as he kissed farther down her stomach she became less aware of the up-close view he now had of her scares and more aware of the growing heat between her legs.

Fire.  
It felt like everyplace on her body that his mouth or hands touched had erupted in flames that continued to burn away at her flesh long after the fact.

His hands rubbed over her still partially clothed body.

Too many layers.  
There was too much fabric separating their bodies. His eyes were darkened with an almost ravenous hue, at the thought of how soon they'd be as close as two people can be. It felt like he'd been waiting for years to know how it would feel with her legs wrapped around him and to hear her crying out his name as he drove her over the edge.

His hands landed on her hips and she could feel him starting to pull her pajama shorts down, he wanted them gone, followed by her bra and panties. He wanted to see all of her, feel her bare body against his –though he'd barely moved the waistband an inch before she started to squirm under him.

A helpless feeling had started to set in for her and as much as she wanted him, it was becoming increasingly harder for her to breathe knowing what was coming next. An invasion of her body that would surely send her mentally spiraling back into the horrific memories of when she was raped.

Moving back up until his face was above hers, he started to ask her if she was alright, but just as he opened his mouth she pulled his face back to hers, with more urgency in her movements than ever before.

Despite her feeling again like she was in a car that was speeding out of control, she kissed him as passionately as she could, with everything in her –trying to both let him know she wanted him and in an attempt to clear her own mind.

His lower body moved against hers, the friction from the move caused her body to jerk, her hips bucked up against him with a gasp at the feeling of his growing erection pressing against the fabric of his pants. Waves of excitement pulsed over her body from the masculine groan he'd made in response.

Her body was craving him, but it still wasn't enough to fully chase away her worries, no matter how much she wished it was. She'd give anything in the world to have a normal relationship with him, one where the idea of intimacy didn't send her scrambling for any excuse to cut the night short.

Bird felt like he'd been more than patient with her, considering she'd offered up no explanation, and she knew too many more times of her reacting the way she did, he'd ask questions that she wasn't ready to answer yet.

Maybe her first time with him wouldn't be ideal, she considered, knowing the memories of what she'd gone through would probably haunt her the entire time –but maybe the next time would be better.

She considered that if she could hide what she was feeling from him well enough, that maybe the next time she wouldn't hold the same level of fear.

"Are you okay-"

He started to ask when she appeared to no longer be enjoying the moment with him and started to act frantic, a fact made perfectly clear when she wouldn't even let him finish the question before she reclaimed his mouth in a deep kiss.

Something was wrong, he could feel it and judging from her actions, it felt like she was just trying to get it over with.

Harvey's entire body jolted and tensed when Bird wrapped her legs around him and rubbed her lower body forcefully against him, barely able to catch his breath, he pulled back from the kiss and somehow found the strength to speak –though he could barely choke his words out when she moved against him again and ran her fingers down his bare sides on her way to grab onto his pants.

"Starling…"

"I'm fine." She huffed, her voice muffled against his face as she kissed across his jawline.

"Look at me." Harvey said, pulling his face away from hers to try and see her better.

Her head fell heavy into the pillow as she let go of him and laid back down, "I'm…" Her voice trailed off and there was a weakness in her tone as she apologized, "I'm sorry… but I can't do this."

Moving out from underneath him, she stood up and walked over to her windows keeping her back to him as she went.

Sitting on the edge of the bed watching her, Harvey tried to steady his breathing and find his voice. "The scars aren't the only reason you keep stopping this, is it?"

Silently, she shook her head back and forth.

Slowly he got to his feet and took a few steps closer to her as he fished for information, "Have you never-"

"I've had sex before." She answered, with a distance in her voice. Shaking her head back and forth she quietly admitted, "The problem is that one of those times it wasn't my choice."

By the time she'd reached the end of her sentence, her eyes were tightly pinned shut awaiting his reaction.

The room stayed quiet for so long she'd started to wonder if he'd left, until he asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You're always so understanding and I'd already put you through so much and I kept thinking I could handle it." She explained, her eyes still closed as she refused to even look at his reflection in the window. "I want this, I want you… but the problem is that it's not just us in that bed. I can't get the thoughts of what happened out of my head and I'm just…"Her voice trailed off.

"Damaged goods." She finally added, before apologizing again, "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing." Harvey stated, stepping up behind her and slowly wrapping his arms around her he said, "You don't have anything to apologize for, not to me."

He felt her let out a relieved breath and lean back against him. Tightening his hold on her he pressed a kiss to her shoulder as he softly said, "Deep down I think we're all damaged goods in some shape or form."

She felt him press another kiss to her shoulder, followed by another and another as he moved towards her neck. Turning her face towards him, her eyes closed as his mouth collided with hers.

Harvey pulled back and his breath was hot on her neck as he questioned, "Do you trust me?"

"Of course." She'd grown to trust him as much as she could trust anyone, "It's not a matter of trust it's just that the idea of sex, even with you-"

He cut her defense down with a single heated kiss that left her feeling as dizzy as she did when they were lying in bed. Once the kiss was broken, Bird didn't pull back and he kept his face next to hers as he said, "I don't want to have sex with you. I want to make love to you… and if you'll just trust me, we'll take it slow and I promise I'll make you see stars."

Her mouth hung open with a stunned expression on her face, her breath was shaky and she couldn't get her tongue to form a single world, not that she had words to form at that point.

His eyes searched her face for an answer since she didn't say anything out loud, slowly he moved his face closer to hers until their lips met again; it was a feeling he couldn't ever get enough of.

His hands slowly moved over her body, rubbing down her sides and back up again, leaving her skin tingling wherever they landed. When he cupped and gently squeezed her breasts through the bra she was still wearing, she could feel the effects of his touch down much lower on her body and her heart raced faster inside of her chest.

His tongue was tangled with hers and the more adjusted she got to the feeling of his roaming hands, the more any fear she was feeling melted away. With his left hand flat against her stomach, his right hand traveled down further and before she processed what was happening he'd slipped it inside of her pajama shorts and underwear.

Bird's breath came to an abrupt stop somewhere inside of her throat and she pulled back from the kiss with a low gasp, slowly his fingers started to explore her warmth and her unsteady breath was rushed and humid against his lips.

Her hand landed on his wrist, but she didn't try to pull him away.

Slickened from her arousal, Harvey's fingers glided easily against her, while his mouth focused on her neck, easily eliciting a moan from her as he teased her sensitive buttonl.

He knew exactly how to touch her; she couldn't keep a clear thought in her dizzied head, nor could she control how her body trembled in response to him. Bird's throat ran dry and she tilted her head back against him, she felt like her entire body was flushed and the feeling of his bare skin against her back, his mouth on her shoulder, combined with the magic his hand was working on her was almost too much –she felt drunk from it all.

Her legs felt weak; but she widened her stance as she readjusted the way she'd been standing and he smiled against the flushed, sweat peppered skin of her shoulder. Every little movement she made and every single sound she made was driving him wild. His pants were growing more uncomfortably tight by the second; he ached for a release of his own, but for now he was determined to make her feel good and show her she could trust him in all the ways that scared her.

Her breath halted again when she felt him slide a finger into her, gladly accepting the feeling and invasion, she couldn't hold her silence any longer and she moaned loudly, fighting to catch her breath as she did.  
Slowly she opened her eyes and looked at their reflections in the glass of her bedroom window, and the sight that met her was almost enough to send her over the edge. The sight of his strong arms around her body, his head bowed like a prayer to her shoulder –the muscles flexing under his skin as he worked fervently to give her body the release she was craving.

"Oh my god…" She gasped when he added a second finger to the one plunging in and out of her, her body quickly adjusted to the feeling and she leaned forward some, placing her palms flat against the cold glass on her window and he leaned forward against her to reach her easier.

Still moving his fingers in and out of her, he used his thumb to tease the swollen, aching button that had recently been neglected and she arched against his hand; her body shamelessly pleading for more.

Harvey kept up the pace with his hand; her body shivered under his affections and he knew she was close. Her breathing was harsh and steadily growing more uneven with each second that passed them by, her lungs ached and burned with each breath she fought to catch.  
His other arm slid back around her midsection, holding her shaking body against him and it didn't take much more to send her over the edge and straight into a feeling of white hot bliss as she came with his name on her lips.

By the time she started to come back down from the high, her skin felt she'd been covered in liquid heat, she wasn't even sure how her legs were still holding her up. Leaning her head farther forward, she welcomed the coldness of the night through her window pane when she rested her head against the glass. It felt like her body had been consumed in fire.

Bird felt him press a kiss to the back of her neck as he pulled his hand from her pants; his breath felt thick to her flushed skin and feeling his erection pressing against her through his pants awoke something inside of her.

She wanted to be with him, to be as close as humanly possible. Whether the fear was gone or her desire was just outweighing it –she wasn't sure.

Their eyes met as she turned around to face him, neither of them saying a word, just staring at the other like they were the only ones left on earth.

Her lips crashed against his as she threw herself back into his arms, and his hands rubbed down her body and back up, finding the clasps of her bra and unfastening them as fast as he could manage.

By the time they made it over to her bed, her bra had landed somewhere between where they now lay on the mattress and the window they'd been in front of.  
Her head pressed down into the pillows, and her body arched up against him when he focused his mouth on her now bare chest.

With a pleasured whimper she ran her hand through his hair, her nails raking over his scalp as he kissed down her stomach. Raising up he grabbed onto the waistband of her shorts and she willing raised her hips up from the mattress to help him.

Raising up with him, she kissed up his chest and neck until her mouth found his lips again; the urgency in her kiss and movements was quickly matched by Harvey, and the seconds felt like hours until his pants were gone and he'd been released from the fabric confinement.

Bird's eyes hungrily drank in the sight of his bare body, her gaze lingering on his hardened length as her body craved to feel him inside of her; to feel the weight of his body pressed down against her own.

His eyes feasted on her naked flesh as she lay back on the bed with the now damp, thin, dark color panties still clinging to her skin. Never in his entire life had he loved or desired someone the way he did for her.  
Running his hands down her bare body, he could have sworn her skin was made of silk with as soft as she felt under his hands. Gripping on the fabric, he gazed up at her face and waited until she lifted up for him so he could remove them to make sure she was okay with the situation.

As Harvey moved back over Bird in the bed, he stared down at her flushed face before leaning down and pressing his mouth to hers. Her hands rubbed over his strong arms and around to his back as she held onto him, she still felt a little nervous but she wasn't scared anymore. She was fully in the moment with him; present both in mind and body and she knew without a doubt that she was completely in love with him.

* * *

 **A/N - So... what did you all think of the chapter?**

 **Thank you so much to SusieSamurai, Miss E Charlotte and to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx for being amazing and reviewing the last chapter.**


	27. Birds of a Feather

**XXVII**

 _"Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity and ruin." ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

* * *

The late morning sun was shining in through the windows of Bird's apartment when she started to stir. Slowly she blinked her eyes a few times trying to adjust her vision with the lighting, looking down at the mens t-shirt she fell asleep in, she smiled to herself and became aware of the heavy feeling of an arm draped over her side.

Looking over her shoulder she saw Harvey's face, as he slept peacefully next to her in the bed. Moving as gently as possible to not wake him, she scooted back in the bed until her body was as close to his as she could get.

The sun became her biggest enemy as she tried to close her eyes and drift back to sleep. She wasn't ready for it to be morning yet, her body was sore –a mix between all the running and fighting she'd done to find her brother and the active night she'd spent with Harvey.

She'd give anything to stop the clocks and lay there with him forever. The night before was nothing short of amazing, magical even and she never wanted it to end.

With the daylight brought a new set of worries and fears for her. In the moment, lost in passion it was easy enough for them both to believe they could make things work, but what about now, she wondered. Now that the sun had chased away the moon and they'd both have to get back to their lives, their jobs and being opposite sides of the ongoing war in Gotham.

Bird had the feeling that his willingness to stay by her even after learning more about her was stemmed out of not only his love for her, but also from thinking that she was going to start down a different path in life and away from the one she'd been on for the last few years.  
Something that she wasn't entirely sure she was ready to do – now or ever.

Oswald was her best friend and had been for going on five years now, she'd swore she'd help him climb to the top of the crime ladder. That was always their plan; overthrow Falcone and Maroni claim the thrones for themselves. Create a new Gotham, a better Gotham under their ruling –only now Bird wasn't sure if she even wanted that anymore.

Maybe it was a result of her getting older and growing up, or losing her parents and feeling so responsible for her brother now, in truth her relationship with Harvey probably had something to do with it too –but she was steadily noticing the shift in things that were and weren't important to her now.

In many ways she felt like a new person, she felt lighter and happier than she had in a very long time. She had a sense of hope that she didn't even know she was still capable of feeling.  
But she tried not to dwell on it much, after all what good is being a new person if they're still weighed down by their old demons?

Closing her eyes tight, she snuggled her face against her pillow and tried to push all the thoughts from her mind. She could use a few more hours of sleep before she went to work later that evening.

It wasn't much later that she felt his arm slide off her side and felt the bed move, looking up at him she thought he was leaning over her to see if she was awake, but then she realized he was looking at the alarm clock on her nightstand.

With a loud groan, he laid back down and wrapped his arms around Bird, pulling her body against him as he nestled his head against the back of her neck and breathed in the scent of her conditioner.

"I am very late for work." He admitted, thankful he didn't have to be in court that day.

The feeling of being held tightly in his arms put a sleepy smile on her face, and she let out a content sigh as she said, "I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. I like waking up with you here."

Smiling he agreed, "Yeah, me too."

They stayed like that, laying together in silence for several minutes before she quietly asked, "What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, blinking his eyes back open from nearly falling back asleep.

"The way you blew up at Lovecraft that day-"

"I knew that was still bothering you." He said, cutting her off as he flipped onto his back and scooted up against the headboard some.

Turning over to face him she shook her head, "No, it's not bothering me. Well, at least not in the way you think it is, it's just…"

When her voice trailed off he asked, "It's just what?"

"Harvey, rage like that comes from something –from somewhere dark and I saw a darkness in you that day. I think maybe I knew something was there all along, but I didn't let myself really see it, until I couldn't ignore it anymore." She explained.

Instead of looking at her, he stared up to the ceiling. After all the honesty she'd shown him and the opening up to him about the most painful parts of her life, he knew he owed her the truth too.

Scooting closer, she laid her head down on his chest and draped her arm over his midsection as she asked in a voice barely loud enough for him to hear, "Someone hurt you, didn't they?"

"Yeah." He answered, raising his head and looking down to where she was cuddled up against him before he laid his head back down and took a deep breath. "My dad, he uh… he had a lot of problems. He had a lot of mental illnesses and you know, sometimes people struggling with things like that try to self-medicate, but it only makes things worse."

Bird wanted to raise her head and look at him, but she had a feeling it was easier for him to open up when she wasn't watching him. So she kept her head against his bare skin and held onto him tighter with the arm she had across him.

"He was an alcoholic." He finally said, "I don't know if drinking actually made him feel any better, no matter what he always seemed miserable with whatever was going on inside of his head, but when he drank it was like a switch was flipped inside of him and he turned into a monster. He was constantly abusive –he'd beat me over a bad report card and then a week later beat me again for staying after school to study."

"Harvey…" She breathed, as she scooted up farther in the bed and nestled her head against the crook of his neck and grabbed onto his hand to intertwine their fingers.

With his other arm, he wrapped it around her and held her close as he continued, "I thought it was my fault for a long time, that I just couldn't get things right and that's why he hurt me. Then I got a little older and he was drunk all the time and I realized it really didn't matter what I did wrong or even what I did right, it was all just some sick game of chance." Letting out a heavy breath, he shook his head, "It was a long time ago."

"It doesn't matter how long ago it was." Bird stated, raising her head and looking to him repeating something he'd told her about her own life, "Scars from trauma like that run deep."

"Deeper than I'd like to admit." He agreed, looking at her as he explained, "Sometimes, something will just set me off –like Lovecraft threatening me and I lash out, like you saw. I spent long enough living in fear of my father and I'll be damned if someone is going to try and intimidate me now."

"I understand that." She said as she raised up farther and kissed his cheek when he wouldn't look at her. "I hate that you had to go through that. You deserved so much better, Harvey."

Finally looking back to her, their eyes locked and he reached up, brushing some of her disheveled hair from her face before he leaned and captured her lips in a long, deep kiss.

As hard as it was to dredge up things he'd prefer to keep buried in the past, he did feel a little better that he'd opened up to her. It felt almost like they were starting over again, only this time they both knew what they were getting themselves into and things they'd been hiding were out on display for the other.

 **~(The next day)~**

"Boss, don't look so glum." Butch said as he saw the expression on Fish's face. Her normal confident demeanor was shielded under tired eyes filled with a new sense of self-doubt.

"Yeah, Fish." Bird agreed, looking over her shoulder as she scooted the chairs back to the table that Janacek and Saviano had been sitting in during their meeting with Fish that had ended barely ten minutes ago. "It was just the first meeting, we've got time to turn this around."

Looking between her most trusted employees, Fish scoffed, "You both saw how that went."

Butch and Bird exchanged looks as their boss walked over and took a seat at the bar, where she snapped to signal the waiter behind the bar to pour her a drink. Once she had a nearly full glass of dark red wine in her hand she dismissed him and took a long drink.

It was just days ago that Falcone had called a dinner party with his top underbosses, his closest and most trusted members of his crime family. Fish had sat at her usual seat at the table when Falcone killed Bannion, a man he'd grown up with –a close and dear friend of his, that was in charge of guarding the armory.  
The move had rattled his underbosses and paranoia had set in with all of them wondering if they might be next. At first Fish thought it was a good thing, that it would drive his people away from him and right to her like sheep.  
Only that confidence was fading now that she was becoming aware that even though other high ranking members in the family wanted Falcone overthrown as well, none of them seemed keen on backing her to fill the Don's shoes.

"Saviano's the problem" Fish said, her voice slightly muffled from the glass when she took another drink, "If it were just Janacek on his own, I could turn him around and the junior capos will follow him."

Walking over to the bar, Bird leaned against it as she asked, "Then we need to take out Saviano, right? If we play it right we can make it look like it was a move from Maroni."

"No." Fish protested, "We need things all squared away before we make a move against Maroni." Swirling the wine in her glass she agreed, "However, if we can't get him to accept that I'm the change Gotham needs-"

Looking between the women, Butch offered, "Hey, why not let me talk to Saviano on my own? Me and Jimmy go way back, we used to run together."

"That's true." Fish nodded, a glimmer of disbelief in her eye when she asked, "What would you tell him?"

"I'd say you're the best candidate, he already knows that. Just can't admit it to your face. He's too proud." Butch explained.

"Okay then…" She breathed, setting her glass down on the bar as she gave him a hard stare and said, "Talk to him."

"Will do." He answered, a little too eagerly as he fastened the button on his suit jacket and started to walk away but she stopped him.

"Butch?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"You're not turning on me, are you?"

"No!" He exclaimed seeming deeply offended by the question, "What kind of question is that? Why would you even joke about something like that?"

"I'm just asking." Fish shrugged, "A girl gets insecure once in a while."

Once he was gone, Bird sat down on the stool next to her boss as she questioned, "Why so paranoid all of a sudden? First you think I'm up to something and then Butch of all people?"

"These are strange times in Gotham." Fish reasoned, "Hard to find a true sense of loyalty anymore. We all used to be a family and now…" Her voice trailed off and she breathed a heavy sigh.

Picking up the glass of wine Fish had been drinking from, Bird took a long drink of the wine before she replaced it to the bar and said with a small smile, "Says the woman trying to overthrow the head of her crime family."

Fish watched her for a few moments, before she said, "I'm glad your brother is home safe. When Bullock and your family's butler showed up here, I did help them. Told them about that new fence Clyde."

Looking her over Fish added, "I did, however, find it a little odd that you never came to me for help."

"I was following my own leads." Bird quickly said, "You've been so busy with everything and I didn't see a point in giving you even more things to be concerned with."

"A year ago, I would have been the first person you came to." She stated, drumming her nails on the wood surface of the bar.

"A year ago my brother wouldn't have ran off with a girl from the streets." Bird countered, her expression giving nothing away.

"You've spread your wings. Look at you, with your own connections and favors to call in, when I used to be the only person you had to turn to." Fish said, but there was a coy look in her eyes as she spoke, like she was one step ahead on a plan that Bird knew nothing off. "I guess I'm just feeling sentimental."

Bird gave her a smile as she stood up and walked past her, pausing for a moment to give her arm a comforting squeeze before heading into the storage office back behind the bar.  
To be suspicious of her was one thing, but to wonder about Butch's loyalty was an entirely new and different version of her boss.  
Maybe, Bird thought, maybe deep down Fish was feeling a sense of remorse of how she was going about bringing down Don Falcone –possibly much like the guilt Bird was struggling with over the plan to bring down Fish.

 **~()~**

"Wow…" Bird breathed as she walked up to the holding cell in the police station that Oswald and his now most trusted henchman, Gabe, were locked up in at the GCPD station. "What have we here?" She added with a wide smile.

"Bird!" Oswald exclaimed, jumping up from the bench he'd been seated on and rushing to the front of the cell. His pale, shaky fingers gripped onto the steel bars as he looked at her with wide eyes and said, "You came! You truly are my closest and dearest friend."

"Well, I mean, come on. I get a message on my phone from you saying you got arrested, I had to see this for myself." She replied, and it quickly became clear to him that she didn't rush down there to make sure he was released. "And what a pickle this really this… with Jim being forced to work security at Arkham and him not being here to help you out and of course, my unwillingness to help you."

"This is funny to you?" He gasped, over-dramatizing the situation as he took a step back and yelled in an unsteady voice, "I'm so glad to know how my pain and torment amuses you so."

"It is a little funny." She agreed, stepping up to the bars and holding onto them from the outside as she explained, "Over a week of ignoring my calls, you didn't return a single message of mine and then you get your ass locked up at the station and I'm the one you call to get you out of the mess? Tell me Oswald, exactly how should I react to this?"

Rushing back towards the front of the cell, Oswald held back onto the bars just above where her hands were as he looked at her with an angry expression as he hissed in a whisper, "You knew –you knew this whole time about Liza working for Fish, spying on Falcone and you never once said anything to me about it."

Moving her head to the side and seeing Gabe was watching them, she looked back to Oswald and questioned, "Letting any old riffraff in on trade secrets, I see."

Rolling his eyes, his voice had a childlike whine to it as he argued, "That's only, Gabe. You've met him before and he's not going to tell. He's loyal… to me."

Blowing out a heavy sigh, she leaned in closer until her face was almost against the bars as she admitted, "I never told you about Liza because I didn't want you to open that can of worms until the time was right. You've been jumping the gun at every corner and about gotten the both of us killed for it. I wasn't withholding the information, I just wasn't going to tell you until the time was right."

"I don't need to do anything with the information. She's a time bomb, and when that bomb goes off she'll bring Fish down with her." Oswald reasoned, his eyes widening slightly as he saw the look on her face and realized, "You like her, don't you?"

"She's my friend." Bird simply replied, and she didn't need to make eye contact with him to know that ever getting attached to Liza in the first place was a big mistake. She'd tried not to, but it wasn't until she'd started to care about her, that she truly realized how nice it was to have a female friend she could talk too about things she'd never dream of discussing with Oswald or anyone else.

"Oh Bird…" He breathed, shaking his head back and forth.

"Shut up. I know, okay? But I couldn't help it. She's a good person and she got mixed up in the wrong situation is all." She whispered.

"And she's going to pay for that in the end. You have to know her days are numbered." He whispered back.

He moved closer to the bars and said, "I should have answered your calls." There was a sheepish look on his face as he glanced down to his shoes and admitted in a quieter voice, "I guess I feel a sense of loss, for the time when it was just the two of us. Back when you didn't feel the need to keep expanding the list of people you cared about."

"Oswald, nothing has changed between us. We still stand in the same place, we're the best of friends." She assured him, but was met by a disbelieving look from him when he countered, "Everything changes. It's the way of the world –constantly changing and evolving, nothing can stay the way it was forever."

Bird started to open her mouth, but before she could Bullock passed by them and paused when he saw the pair speaking in a hushed tone with them both practically pressed against the cell bars from either side. Shaking his head, he let out a booming laugh as he walked past them and said, "I don't know how you can stand that close to him –I can smell him from here."

Bird rolled her eyes before she shot him a look over her shoulder and Oswald stammered in a helpless tone, "All they've given me was a moist towelette!"

"Just ignore him." Bird instructed, sighing with irritation at how everyone was always so mean to him. Even when he did put in the effort to bathe regularly and smelled decent people still poked fun at him, saying he smelled terrible. Probably because penguins are actually rather disgusting creatures, despite their adorable appearance.

"Don't listen to him." Bird repeated, effortlessly going back into their conversation, "I know things rarely stay the same for long, but we're the exception. We're always going to be exactly like we are –in our friendship I mean."

His eyes dropped down to where she moved one of her hands and placed it over his.  
Having her in his life forever is of course what he wanted, however, he didn't like how certain she seemed that they would remain as they were in friendship and couldn't see anything changing between them, when he wanted the situation to change so badly.

Managing a smile, in spite of the fact that the feeling of her flesh on his was making his body tremble uncontrollably he nodded, "Exactly as we are."

When she let go of his hand and the bars, she straightened her stance and glanced around them.

Oswald's tone was full of hope and eagerness as he questioned, "You'll speak to someone about us being released then?"

"No." She answered, taking a moment to observe the stunned look on his face before she held back a smile and explained, "Word on the street is that Maroni told the cops to pick you up. So whatever the hell is going on here, it's between you and _your_ Don. It's clear to see why I can't get involved."

"Maroni?" Oswald exclaimed, "It can't be. He wouldn't have signed off on this."

"I'm just telling you what I heard from some pretty reliable sources." She defended with a small shrug. "Look, I can't get you out of here, but if you guys are hungry… I could raid the vending machines or something."

Oswald dropped his head forward against the bars in frustration, pulling in a deep breath he started to say that yes, both he and Gabe would appreciate the opportunity for food, but was cut short when Gabe pointed out, "She's gone, boss."

Raising his head back up Oswald saw no trace of Bird, looking over his shoulder to Gabe he asked, "Where is she?"

Pointing at a desk just off to the side he answered, "Ducked under that desk."

Oswald let out a groan as he looked at the desk, not understanding what game she was trying to play or why on earth she felt the need to kick him when he was already down and life had used him as a punching bag.

That was until he spotted Salvatore Maroni across the station and realized she'd ducked out of sight from the crime boss.

"Penguin." Maroni greeted as he strolled up to the cell and had a laugh at the sight he was met with inside.

"Don Maroni, thank heavens you're here." Oswald said, hobbling to the side of the cell Maroni was standing on and Gabe stood to follow him.

"You look kinda frowsty." The crime boss observed as he looked Oswald over.

"Forgive me, I've had nothing but a moist towelette since yesterday morning." He admitted.

Maroni took his time, looking around the station before he looked back into the cell and said, "A very sad picture. You know why you're in there?"

"I have no idea-"

"Rhetorical question! You are in there because I put you in there."

Oswald's face contorted when he realized what Bird had told him was the truth, "But Don Maroni… why? What did I do?"

"Do you know what hubris is?" He asked, and when Oswald didn't say anything he yelled, "Do you?"

Jumping at the outburst, Oswald let out a nervous laugh and struggled to find his words, "Sorry, I th-thought that was another rhetorical question." Clearing his throat he nodded frantically, "Yes, I do. Hubris it-it's when…"

"It's when limping little chicken-butt second bananas think they're hot stuff."

"Sir-"

"When dumbass underlings raise taxes without asking me first."

"Yes, sir." Oswald nodded.

"On fishermen!" Maroni yelled, "You raised taxes on fishermen. They're out there in the freakin' ocean risking their lives for us, and you raise their taxes without asking me?"

Pointing a finger at him Don Maroni stated, "That's hubris, my friend."

"I'm sorry, Don Maroni." Oswald scrambled to apologize for his trespasses, "Deeply sorry and it will never happen again."

Looking him over again Maroni ordered a nearby officer to open the cell and let Oswald and Gabe out. Once they were released, Bird peeked over the desk she was still ducked behind and watched as Maroni held his arms out to the side to give Oswald as a sign everything was back to kosher.

Just as Oswald got close enough, clearly uncomfortable from the embrace, Maroni stepped back and exclaimed, "Holy Mother… you stink."

Ashamed at his disheveled state, Oswald looked down to the floor and gave a small nod of understanding.

"Let this be a lesson to you, yes?" Maroni asked and waited until he was given a nod of assurance before he added, "You're a smart monkey, but you're a monkey and I'm the zookeeper.

With that he roughly patted the side of Oswald's face and turned to walk away.

Oswald looked over to see Bird had raised up from behind the desk she'd been hiding behind and their eyes locked. Her jaw was tensed in anger and it was clear he was left feeling just as vengeful as she was. Maroni had been nothing but disrespectful to her and didn't treat Oswald much better.

Neither of them needed to say a word to the other, their expressions told it all. That they couldn't wait for the day that they'd put Maroni down and Gotham would be under a new rule –their rule.

* * *

 **A/N- So, since Gotham hasn't really told us anything about Harvey Dent, I used some of what I know about his past from the comics -along with making things up as I went. Just my luck they will take a different route if they ever get to dive deeper into his character on the show. Haha**  
 **  
**

 **Thanks to Miss E Charlotte, SusieSamurai, Saskia D. Fox, Guest, Love. Fiction. 2016, and to xxXWolfsLullabyXxx for reviewing the last chapter. Which I was really nervous to post, so seriously, thank you so much for the support there!**

 **I know this chapter was a little shorter than usual, but I hope you all enjoyed it just the same. ^_.^**


	28. Sink or Swim

**XXVIII**

 _"One lives with so many bad deeds on one's conscience and some good intentions in one's heart." - John Dewey  
_

* * *

Bird's eyes slowly opened and she looked over to where Harvey was sleeping next to her, a smile spread over her lips as she looked around his bedroom and she started to lay her head back down until the incessant buzzing from the nightstand started up again.

Leaning over she picked up her phone to see she had seven missed calls from Fish and four missed calls from Butch. Just as she went to call one of them back, Fish called again and she answered the phone. Her drowsiness cleared up within a matter of seconds when she was told that they'd pulled Liza out.  
Soon enough they'd be making the call to Falcone with their demands and she needed to get to the club as soon as possible.

Shutting her phone, she slid out of Harvey's bed and quickly went about gathering her clothes from the day before, trying to move as quietly as possible but in her rush and still trying to wake up, staying quiet was next to impossible.

"What are you doing?" Harvey asked in a slightly raspy voice as he walked into his living room to see Bird picking up a stack of movies she'd accidentally knocked off the tv stand.

"I can't find my left shoe." She admitted, with a groan.

Rubbing his eyes and trying to clear his sleep-blurred vision, he blinked several times before pointing next to the couch and asking, "That shoe?"

"Thank you." She breathed, darting over and hopping on one foot while she tried to pull her shoe on. "Fish called, I have to go into work."

"No." He said shaking his head back and forth, still trying to wake up.

Picking her purse up off the coffee table and checking to make sure she had everything in it, she let out a small laugh as she pointed out, "I wasn't asking you, I was telling you."

"I still said no." He softly said, as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and reminded her, "We were going to spend the morning together, remember? I don't have to be in court until later."

Leaning back against him she promised, "If I had a way to get out of this and stay here with you, I would… but this is important and I can't say no."

Her serious tone was sobering to his ears and he moved around to get in front of her when he asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." she nodded with a smile, but he didn't believe it.

"Then why are you rushing out of here like the building is on fire?"

"If you had a court time moved up, I wouldn't give you the third degree about it." Bird pointed out, trying not to get angry with him.  
She didn't want to start her day with a fight.

"True, but you work for…" His voice trailed off and he pulled in a deep breath before calmly saying, "I worry about you and seeing you darting around here all frantic to get out the door makes me worry even more."

"You know I can't tell you anything about it. We agreed, remember? You'd stay out of my work and not ask me incriminating questions." Bird reminded him and he nodded, his forehead resting against hers as he softly added, "And you agreed you'd start trying to distance yourself from these people."

"And I will." She assured him, tilting her face to press a soft kiss to his lips. "Just not today, today I have to be at work and I should have already left ten minutes ago."

Keeping his hands on her sides, he held onto her so she couldn't pull away and offered, "I could drive you back to your place. So you could shower and get clean clothes-"

"My car is downstairs and, Harvey, I know you're trying to stall me, but it cannot happen today. I have to go." Bird sighed, wishing he understood exactly how much she'd rather be spending time with him, but didn't have a choice.

"Guilty." He admitted, his grip tightening on her like he were afraid to let her go as he asked, "Promise me-"

Silencing him with a kiss, she pulled back just enough to speak and her lips brushed against his as she said, "I'm always careful."

 **~()~**

"You look like crap." Butch exclaimed when he saw Bird walking into the club.

"Thanks, Butch." She sarcastically replied as she used the hair-tie around her wrist to pull her messy hair up and try to appear a little more put together.

"Just calling 'em like I see 'em." He replied with a laugh and a look of amusement on his face as he looked her over and questioned, "Didn't you wear that yesterday?"

"Yes!" She whisper yelled at him, as they walked through the club together, "With those dozen calls from you and Fish this morning, I didn't have time to go home before coming here."

Side-eyeing her he guessed, "Sounds like things are getting pretty serious between you and what's-his-name?"

"Hmm." She hummed, "They are and I never told you his name."

"You don't ever say much of anything about your personal life here." He thought out loud, before asking, "Isn't he a lawyer or something?"

"I'm really trying to keep my personal life and business separate." Bird explained, rubbing her forehead as she spoke.

"Good luck with that." Butch said as they neared the bar where Fish was sitting with Liza.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She asked, stopping and facing him.

"Come on." He said with a laugh, but when he saw the look on her face he sighed as he came to a stop and explained, "When you're in organized crime long enough, it all starts to become business."

"That is the most unromantic thing I've ever heard in my life." She complained, with her head cocked to the side.

With a half-smile, he nodded, "And one of the truest. Just give it time, Bird. You'll see what I'm talking about."

She stood in place and watched as he walked towards Fish and announced, "She's here, boss."

Looking to her youngest employee, her eyebrows raised as she added, "In the same outfit as yesterday nonetheless."

"Come on." Bird sighed, walking up them as she groaned, "You want me here or you want me dressed to the nines?"

"Lose the attitude." Fish warned her with a wave of the finger, "It was only an observation. We're glad you're here. Did you bring it?"

Nodding Bird reached into her purse and retrieved the small voice changing device that fit over the mouthpiece of a telephone receiver and handed it to her boss as she assured her, "It works."

Taking the voice changer from her, Fish clutched it tightly in her hand and looked a little hesitant as she stared down to the phone that Butch had set on the bar for her to use.

"You okay boss?" He questioned, picking up on her reluctance to make the next move.

"Never better." She breathed, looking around to the small group as she added, "It's time. Time to make our move on Falcone." Her eyes cut over to where Liza looked more worried now than when they'd first pulled her off the street. "Don't be scared baby girl, I got this."

Liza nodded and looked to Bird who gave her a small smile and silently prayed that Fish was right about this, that it really was the right time to make her move and that the day wouldn't end in a bloodbath.

Taking a deep breath, Fish secured the voice changer over the microphone of the receiver and slowly dialed the landline number to reach Falcone's mansion.

When he picked up the phone, Fish immediately said, "Mr. Falcone, we have your girl Liza. Would you like to see her again?"

" _Yes, I would."_

"She'll be glad to hear that, for a fit young woman she has a low pain threshold." Fish said, before pulling the device off the phone and holding it out as she gave Liza the signal to act like she was being hurt.

"Please, no! Stop!" Liza yelled in her best panicked voice.

Clicking the voice changer back onto the phone, Fish brought it back to herself and said, "An intermediary will be in contact with you soon."

" _Don't hurt her… she's a civilian."_

Fish quickly hung up the phone and finally let out the breath she'd been holding.

Bird nervously fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket as she asked, "Did he buy it?"

A curt nod from her boss was the only answer she got, before Fish picked up her glass of wine and drank half of it down.

"What now?" Liza asked with a shrug as she looked between the two women who'd prepared her to be made in the likeness of the crime boss's mother.

"Now?" Fish asked, her gaze dropping to the floor when she explained, "Now we just let him sit and think about his life for a while."

 **~()~**

"Here you go." Bird said as she sat down across the table from Liza and slid her a drink she'd poured moments ago while she'd been behind the bar.

Nodding in thanks, she raised the glass to her lips and took a drink before her face scrunched up as she swallowed it and it burned like acid all the way down to her stomach. "Oh my god!" she exclaimed, coughing a few times before she struggled to say, "That is so strong, what the hell is it?"

"I thought we needed something stronger than wine." Bird explained, as she took a drink from her own glass but didn't seem affected in the least by the burn of the alcohol.

Liza eyed her for a moment before nodding in agreement and taking another drink.  
The day had been a nightmare for her. She'd been given no warning at all that today was the day Fish was going to bring everything down.  
She'd been walking through a small outdoor market gathering the ingredients she'd need to prepare dinner that night, a dinner she was going to share with Falcone when someone shot the guard he'd assigned to her and a black cloth bag was pulled over her head.

The entire drive back to the club she'd pleaded with her abductors to let her go, saying she was only Falcone's housekeeper. The car ride had felt like it lasted an eternity, with each hour long second feeling like it might very well be her last.

"You're nervous." She whispered, making sure no one could overhear them.

Bird looked at her for a second before diverting her eyes down to the table.

Liza's brows furrowed as she thought back to the night Bird had come to her, offering her a large sum of money and the chance to start over anywhere she wanted in the world under a different name.

"Can I ask you something?" She softly questioned, taking another small sip from her glass.

Bird nodded and Liza asked, "If you're so sure that this is all going to go to hell, why didn't you leave? Start over fresh somewhere like you tried to get me to do?"

"I've thought about it before, you know? Starting over fresh somewhere and a few times I really almost did, but now I don't know… Gotham is the only home I've ever known and now I've got so much in my life that I don't wanna leave behind."

"Like Harvey?" She guessed.

"He's one of the reasons, then I've got my brother to think about and honestly, I'm not sure I know how to be anything else than what I am." Bird explained, "I do bad things, but I'm good at it. In fact, I think being bad is one of the only things I've ever excelled at."

"I'm scared." Liza said, her eyes pinned shut with the admission, "That night you came to talk to me, I know I acted strong and brave, but I'm scared, Bird. I might not have as many things I'd be leaving behind as you do, but I don't want to die."

Bird stared down to her empty glass for a minute that seemed to span over eternity, before she looked back up to Liza and said, "I don't want to die either."

With a weak laugh, Liza asked in a wavering voice, "You think we're making a big deal out of nothing? I mean this time tomorrow Fish could be ruling Gotham and we'll feel pretty stupid for being so worried."

"Possibly." Bird agreed with a small laugh, "Either way, we're in too deep now to back out. We're either going to sink or swim together."

Liza's gaze moved past where Bird was sitting towards the bar where she saw Butch motioning for them to come over. "We're being summoned." She explained, sliding out of the booth and Bird followed suit.

"I think the old man has had time enough to think." Fish explained, as she picked the phone receiver up and dialed Falcone's number again.

"Carmine, some people have called me about your girl Liza. They want me to help make a deal." Fish said when he picked up.

Bird stepped closer to her boss and leaned in to hear what the crime boss had to say.

Falcone let out a heavy sigh, "I didn't think it was going to be you. I'm sorry."

"I… I'm just an intermediary. I just want to help." Fish said, internally cringing when she used the same choice of words she'd also used earlier over the phone."

"Please, my dear. Stop. I know this is you… be honest." Falcone said, and Bird's eyebrows lowered as she heard the pain in his voice when he spoke. Though in the grand scheme of it all, she'd only played a small role and had done so under Fish's orders –for reasons she was unsure of, Bird felt guilty.

"It's me." Fish admitted, unable to get her mouth to say much else.

"Of course it is." Falcone sighed, "How long have I known you? You're the smart one in the family, didn't I always say so?"

"She won't be hurt. Leave Gotham, that's all. Leave Gotham and never come back, you can take her with you."

There was a long pause and for a moment both Bird and Fish wondered if he'd hung up, but he finally said, "Agreed."

"That's the right decision, I'll make the arrangements-" Fish started to say, but Falcone cut her off with words that struck deeper than a blade against skin, "You were always my favorite."

"Wait for my call." She harshly replied, before hanging the phone up.

Sitting down on one of the stools at the bar, Bird looked to her boss and saw the somber expression on her face –an expression Butch seemed to miss as he asked with a smile, "He's leavin'?"

His smile grew as he exclaimed, "You did it!" His loud laugh cut through the silence of the three women as he looked around at them and added, "Boss! The genius, the vision of it all! You did it, you brought down the old man."

Grabbing a bottle up from the bar, he poured a glass for Fish and slid it towards her, "Let's celebrate."

"Butch this is not a time for celebration. He was a great man once." The look on her face changed to one of conviction and her voice raised, "You don't think somebody would take him out if he stayed on? I am doing him a favor and giving him an easy way out. I owe him at least that."

"Of course." Butch nodded, "You're right. This is best for everyone."

"How did he sound?" Liza questioned.

"Defeated." Bird softly replied, swallowing hard as she spoke. She wanted Falcone pushed out just as much as the next person, but there were many traits she admired in him and while she was never very close to him, she felt a small sense of loss.

"He sounded sad." Fish agreed, looking to her secret weapon as she ordered, "Look at me. Is there something you're not telling me?"

"No?" Liza shrugged.

"You're gonna have to leave town with him for a while, string him along. Do you think you can do that?"

"Sure."

Seeing the younger womans eagerness to agree to the plan, Fish said, "But you like him though, don't you?"

"Well, I can like him can't I?" She asked with a weak laugh, "He's been a perfect gentleman. He could have done anything and he never laid a hand on me."

"Liza, you can like him all you want, but you can never tell him the truth." Fish letchured.  
Looking over in Bird's direction, Liza remembered when she was told the same thing before and she agreed, "I know that."

"Butch, take Liza in the back incase Falcone shows up unannounced." Fish instructed with a snap of her fingers.

Once they were gone, Bird looked to her boss and pointed out, "I think her liking him is a good thing… I mean, a lie with a heart of truth and all."

"Yes." Her boss nodded, "But we don't live in the era of happy endings."

"Are you okay?" Bird questioned, her voice barely over a whisper as she spoke.

Without giving the question or answer any though Fish automatically replied, "I'm fine."

"It's just…" Bird breathed, "You care about Falcone; like a father… like a friend. This can't be easy for you, going against someone you're close too."

"What comes easy is seldom worth it." Fish countered, picking up the drink Butch had poured for her after the phone call.

Taking a drink she stared down into the amber liquid as she said, "It's not easy, but it's what's best for everyone. He's long overstayed his call to power and the capos are going to turn against him, more so than they already are. Much longer and someone else is going to make a move, someone who doesn't care for him as much as I do."

"Sounds like you might really want him to have a happy ending." Bird observed, getting a glass from behind the bar and pouring herself a drink as she spoke.

"The old man has had a hard life." Fish said with a vacant look in her eyes and a weak shrug of the shoulders. After another drink from the glass she continued, "He lost a child many years ago."

"Really?" Bird asked, "I thought he had a few sons, but they just weren't in contact with him."

"He does, but he's also lost a child." Fish nodded.

"I didn't know that." Bird admitted with a frown. Letting a minute or so pass she cleared her throat and questioned, "What happened?"

"It was a long time ago… probably going on twenty or so years." She shrugged, "The story is both mother and child were killed not long after the baby was born." After another drink she sighed, "I've known some bad people in my life, but for someone to target a newborn..."

Her voice trailed off and she finished her drink. Looking to Bird, Fish asked, "Why don't you go upstairs to the office and get those legal papers I had drawn up for today? It won't be long now."

 **~()~**

Hearing the door open to the club, Fish and Bird looked at each other. They were the only two out in the open; Butch, Liza and a few of her other men were in the back part of the club, behind the stage.

Bird didn't need to turn around to know that the footsteps approaching them belonged to Carmine Falcone. The steps were heavy –weighed down with both sorrow, defeat and the last of his pride.

"Fish." He greeted as he walked into the room with them.

"Don Falcone." She greeted with a nod of respect.

Bird rose to her feet and stood next to Fish, she could feel Falcone's eyes on her but she couldn't bring herself to face him. He'd been good to her in the several dealings she'd had with him, in hindsight probably treated her better than was deserved.

"How does this work?" He asked looking back to Fish.

"Liza is close by…all I need for you to do is sign papers." Fish said, snapping her fingers as she spoke and Bird moved the legal papers to the middle of the table and placed a pen on top of the stack.

Waiting until Bird had everything set up, Fish continued, "Relinquish all control of the family, and then you're both free to leave."

"Papers?" He scoffed, "You really think papers make a Don?"

"I'm offering you a way out, Carmine." Fish pointed out.

"I appreciate that, thank you… but I need to see Liza first, before I'll sign anything. I need to know she's alright."

"She's fine."

"I need to see her or no deal."

Fish clicked her tongue and waved a finger in the air –in response the door to the backstage opened and Butch walked out with Liza.

Fish and Bird stepped back to where Butch was now standing and Liza walked up to Falcone. He looked her over, relieved to see there were no visible traces of injury.

Reaching down he took one of her hands in his as he asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay." She answered and as he looked into her eyes he could tell she wasn't lying. His relief started to fade with the realization that anyone else in her shoes would have been rather alarmed by all that had happened and Liza just seemed too calm around Fish and her employees.

"How long have you known Fish Mooney?" He asked her.

"Huh?" Liza breathed, "I… I don't. I just met her now."

"No, a little bird told me she and you have been friends for a while." He argued, "Told me that she told you stuff about my mother so I'd get all caught up in you."

Fish looked over to the young woman standing beside her, thinking to herself of how Bird wouldn't even look at Falcone when he walked in.

Clearly able to see what Fish was thinking, Falcone shook his head, "No, not that little Bird."

Taking a deep breath, Bird finally raised her head and looked at Falcone knowing he must have been talking about Oswald.

Falcone's gaze fell heavy on Fish as he pointed out, "You know about my mother, about how much I love my mother… because we talked about her –all of the time, you and me. Remember Fish, back in the day?"

"I do." She nodded, trying to keep her voice calm and expression blank of emotion, "It seems as though a little bird has been making a bit of mischief."

"Yes, that's what I had hoped –but the truth is plain to see and I'm very disappointed at my own stupidity." Falcone admitted.

With the sounds of doors opening, came more sets of footsteps. Bird looked around as the room started to fill with several of the henchwomen who worked for Victor Zsasz, all of them clad in leather and most with eccentric dark makeup on their faces. Her eyes widened as she looked around at the Zsaszettes and a deep feeling of doom started to set in.  
She, herself, wasn't armed and Butch hadn't had the chance to draw his own gun before they were so clearly out numbered.

Her heartbeat was uneven inside of her chest and she couldn't find the oxygen in the air that her lungs desperately needed. Doing a quick survey of the room, she saw most eyes were on Fish and she took the opportunity to try and sneak away unnoticed.

Slowly, she backed away and after making it several steps Bird started to feel like maybe she was home free –that was until she backed right into someone.  
With her breath caught in her throat, she slowly turned to see she was now staring down the barrel of a gun that was held by none other than Victor Zsasz, himself.

Seeing the startled look on her face, Victor cracked a villainous smile as he taunted, "And where do you think you're going?"

Turning around and blowing out a heavy sigh, Bird shook her head as she stepped back up to where she'd been standing with the sounds of Victor's footsteps right behind her as she went.

"I'm sorry, Liza." Falcone said, before giving it some thought and asking, "Is that your name?"

Her breath was uneven as she nodded fearfully and glanced over her shoulder to see Bird looked terrified and it was in those moments that Liza realized exactly how bad of a turn the day had taken. A part of her still desperately needed to believe that Falcone cared too much for her to hurt her, but she was already regretting not taking Bird up on her offer of getting out of Gotham.

When she looked back to him, Falcone said, "I'm sorry you had to get mixed up in this, because I'm sure you're a good, honest girl really." As he spoke he trailed his thumb over the soft, rosy skin of her cheek, just before he wrapped his hands around her throat.

Liza let out a pained and terrified gasp as she tried to back away, but he was much too strong and despite her struggling she couldn't pull away from him.

Bird wanted to make a move, do something to stop the Don and save her friend, but she was all too aware of how close Victor was standing to her and she doubted it would take much for orders to be given to put her down if she interfered.

With the otherwise silent room filled with the agonized sounds of Liza being choked to death, Fish finally couldn't stand it and started to move forward but Butch stopped her, "No." He said under his breath, as he kept a hold on her arm to save her life. He understood just how personal their attack had been on Falcone and that Liza had to be killed for her betrayal, along with the fact that if anyone tried to stop the Don –they'd be next.

As Liza sank to her knees, her hands flailed wildly in the air, grasping at Falcone –at anything that could save her and make the pain stop.  
Bird tried to disconnect from the situation, she'd seen countless people be killed, taken more than several lives herself… but this was different. Liza was a friend, someone she'd grown to care about and she hated herself for standing there and doing nothing to save her.

It felt like lifetimes had passed until her body finally gave out and she crumpled the rest of the way to the floor, as her lifeless body collapsed her hand slid down the scarf she'd been wearing, while Falcone still held onto the other end of it.

Bird looked down to see Liza's eyes were still open, but there wasn't an ounce of light left in them, no signs of life at all. Quickly she looked away, her own breathing shaky and she knew she'd never get that image out of her mind.

Letting the scarf fall to the floor, Falcone took a moment to catch his breath.

Everyone watched as he pulled a purple flower from his pocket and brought it to his lips, pressing a single kiss to the petals before he dropped it next to Liza's body.  
It was clear to see that she must have given him the flower.

Motioning to Fish and Butch, Falcone instructed, "I want these two alive for now."

Bird looked around, a sour feeling growing in her stomach when she wondered what that meant for her. He clearly knew she had knowledge of what had happened and he wasn't likely to forgive a betrayal like that.

"And you..." He said, turning his attention to Bird.

"Don Falcone!" She exclaimed, rushing forward and ignoring Butch's advice to stand down, she started to plead, "Sir-"

Not the least bit interested in what she had to say for herself, Falcone raised his hand and backhanded her across the face.

The force of the blow stopped her before she could finish what she had to say and caused her to take a few stumbling steps backwards as she held onto her now throbbing face. A stunned expression glazed over her eyes and she stared at him as blood started to run from her open mouth where her teeth had cut into the inside of her cheek.

"You knew this entire time." He accused, watching as she stared at him in disbelief, as if their prior meetings had led her to believe she wouldn't be harmed by him, "You came into my home, looked me in the eye and asked me for a favor –to spare Gordon's life, all the while knowing what Fish was up to."

Bird swallowed hard, the coppery taste of her own blood stinging at her tongue as she felt Fish's cold gaze on her from the newly learned information.

As Carmine Falcone saw the expression on Fish's face and knowing how fond she was of Bird, he asked, "Funny isn't it, Fish? How our favorites are the ones who disappoint us the most?"

Turning his attention back to Victor he motioned towards Fish and Butch again, as he instructed, "Lock them up someplace, and don't bother yelling for help. All of your people are dead."

"Carmine…you have to understand." Fish started to say but stopped when he stepped forward.

Walking up to her he said, "I can forgive all kinds of betrayal and dishonesty, but my mother? How dare you use my sainted mother against me? That's wrong! You'll suffer for that."

For the first time all day, he saw a look of fear on her face and her mouth hung open like she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

"I want to thank you, Fish. For the first time in a long time, I feel alive. I remember who I am, I remember why I'm here." He gruffly said, his tone gaining more power and authority with his every word.

"Just-" Fish began to say, but he cut her off as he yelled, "You can come out now."

Everyone watched as Oswald walked into view, his face had some bruises and lacerations –Bird guessed from the attack on Maroni's men earlier that day. She'd heard on the radio that the Arkham escapee known as 'The Electrocutioner' had went after Maroni and then launched an attack on the police station.

"Right as usual." Falcone said as he turned to greet him.

Oswald gave a small nod in response and Falcone motioned for Bird, who was still holding onto her sore face looking more shell-shocked by the second, to step forward.

Her knees shook as she slowly moved forward, stopping next to Falcone who looked to Oswald and said, "Thank you, my friend… and as promised." He looked back to Bird as he said, "Go."

She moved slowly towards Oswald, feeling like it might have been some sort of trap. Like the Don was letting her think she was going to survive and then order someone to put a bullet through her brain.

Stopping just in front of her best friend, she finally looked at him and their eyes locked as he gave her a smile and nodded to let her know everything was okay –that in his negotiating with Falcone he'd bargained for her life.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she stood beside him and looked back up to see Fish staring between the friends with a look of hatred in her eyes.

Walking over to them, Falcone told Oswald, "Say your goodbyes quick, Fish has places to go."  
He gave one last harsh stare to Bird, before he walked past them on his way out of the club.

Oswald stepped forward with a proud look on his face as he said, "Hello, Fish." With that he let out a chilling laugh, making it ever more apparent that he'd won and she'd lost.

 **~()~**

Stepping over the shattered glass on the floor, Oswald sat down across from Bird in the booth she'd been sitting in ever since the shootout had ended with Fish and Butch being captured and taken away.

She didn't look up at him, just continued to stare down to the floor where Liza's body had laid until a few of Falcone's men carried her corpse away.

"I am sorry you had to lose your new friend." Oswald said, though it was easy enough to tell from the tone in his voice that the apology was less than sincere. "But overall, today went very well. That vile creature Fish Mooney is now out of the way and we are one step closer to ruling this city."

"That vile creature saved my life once, you know." Bird softly said, though her voice had no argument left to it. "I wish Falcone had just killed her on the spot… she doesn't deserve whatever it is he has in store for her. Butch doesn't deserve it either, he was only being loyal as always."

"You're not going soft…" He breathed, hardly able to believe what he'd heard her say. Fish had tried to have him killed after all and in his mind she deserved the worst of the worst, not to mention every time he looked at Bird now his mind kept flashing back to when Fish had kissed her to hurt him.

"Me?" She scoffed, "Never. I'm just shaken up."

Raising the napkin he'd brought her earlier to her face, she wiped the blood that had started to pool up in the corner of her mouth away and explained, "I thought he was going to kill me, you know? Falcone said to keep Fish and Butch alive, and then Victor was just staring at me like he knew something I didn't and I honestly thought the next words that came out of his mouth were going to be orders to put me down."

"You thought I'd let that happen?" He asked, seeming completely shocked by the idea of it.

"I think you spend so much time and energy into keeping your lies straight and yourself alive that it's not so farfetched an idea that someone else's wellbeing might slip your mind."

"Bird!" Oswald exclaimed, an angry look spreading over his face.

"What?" She asked, staring back at him with an almost vacant look in her eyes.

"Don't you understand how much you mean to me?" He asked, his soft tone clashing with his still angered expression as he stared at her.

When she gave a weak shrug and her eyes drifted back down to the floor where her friend's lifeless body had been laying, an almost helpless expression took over Oswald's features as he watched Bird.

His mouth hung open as he tried to think of the right words to say, something he didn't normally have trouble with. He'd always been well-spoken and it was one of his many traits that allowed him to play a double agent so easily, but that well-polished skill seemed to evade him when it came to Bird. He always found himself thrown off his game and more times than not, always seeming to say the wrong thing.

"Do you really doubt how much I care for you?" He finally asked, drawing her attention back to him.

When she remained silent he yelled, "It's crystal clear, you see this is why life was far better when it was just us in the picture, before you made other friends and took on a lover!"

Jolted from the outburst, her eyes narrowed at him and he scrambled to his feet as he pointed a finger at her and accused, "This is all on you; this pain you're in is your own doing-"

Jumping to her own feet, Bird roughly smacked his hand away from her as she screamed back, "Well excuse me for not always being a well-oiled machine –sometimes the human being in me feels things and right now I'm feeling sad and guilty and it would be really great if you could realize that not everything in my life has to center around you."

Glass crunched against the floor underneath her shoes as she turned and walked away, leaving her friend looking both hurt and stunned as he stood among the disarray left in the club.

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you for reading! I hope you all liked the chapter.**

 **I owe an extra special thank you to The Plague Doctor, Miss E Charlotte, and Love. Fiction. 2016 for being wonderful and reviewing chapter 27.**

 **For anyone who's interested, you can find me on Tumblr under the username 'twofacedharveydent', I post story related posts and edits quite a bit. ^_^**


	29. Slow Dancing with the Devil

**XXIX**

" _The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." - H. P. Lovecraft_

* * *

Oswald quietly shut the door to Bird's apartment behind him, it was a little after two in the morning and he'd spent the last few hours tossing and turning in his bed, unsuccessfully trying to chase down the sleep he needed –only for it to continue to evade him.

There was a sick feeling in his stomach that had been residing there since the day when Bird had left him standing amongst the state of ruin Fish's club had been left in.  
He'd since come to realize that the nausea was a physical manifestation of an emotion he wasn't used to feeling –that emotion was guilt.  
It hurt him to see Bird in pain from losing Liza, and he'd lashed at her when she didn't deserve it during a time when she'd needed him to step up and be her best friend and instead he'd selfishly turned the situation around to tell her if she hadn't tried to make new friends that she wouldn't have to be feeling the pain she was in.

Even with the element of guilt, he was still angry with Bird for feeling the need to bring new people into her life. He couldn't understand it. For years they'd stuck together, a rather fitting expression would be that they were thick as thieves. And though, he didn't like seeing her in pain –he also couldn't help but feel a sense of relief that with Liza's death, Bird now had one less friend. One less person he'd have to share her time and affections with.

In the moonlight lit room, he saw some empty glass bottles scattered around and the room was badly in need of being tidied up.

When he stepped on something soft he looked down to see Bird's favorite leather jacket lying on the floor next to one of her chairs. Oswald picked the jacket up and dusted it off before neatly folding and draping it over the back of the high back chair; gently trailing his fingers over the fabric as he walked past the chair towards her room.

His footsteps sounded louder than usual on the wooden floorboards as he quietly pushed the door open to find her lying asleep on her usual side of the bed –dressed in what he recalled was the same dress she'd been wearing the last time he saw her.

Like opposite ends of magnets attracting, he felt a pull to go closer to her and so he did. Right up to the side of the bed as he stared down at her, she was sound asleep but the look on her face was anything but peaceful. She looked like she was being tormented, and knowing her history with nightmares, he considered she very well might currently be haunted by the thoughts in the darkest corners of her mind.

Before he'd been able to stop himself, he reached out and trailed his fingers over the bare skin of her shoulder and down her arm. His heart picked up speed with every passing second, her flesh felt softer than silk under his touch and he'd have sworn she was made of something far more than just human –both inside and out.

Unable to pull his hand away, he ran his fingers back up her arm to her shoulder, where his touch lingered before continuing on their journey across her collarbone towards her chest –until she made a small noise and turned from her side onto her back.

He stayed perfectly still, no longer even breathing for fear it might stir her from her slumber.

Oswald remained like that for what felt like at least three minutes, before he finally let out the breath that had been trapped deep in his lungs. He continued to stare down at her, observing that the expression on her face seemed more content than when he'd first found her. A small smile graced his lips as he considered the possibility that maybe somehow she knew he was there and that his presence was enough to make her feel at ease.

With trembling fingers, he reached back down and lifted the diamond pendant of her necklace up from her skin and watched as it brilliantly sparkled in even the dim lighting of the room. It was the necklace he'd given her for her birthday; it had been adorning her neck every time he'd seen her since he'd gifted her the solitaire diamond necklace.  
A thought that put a smile on his face –knowing she'd barely taken it off and in many ways it represented to him that she wanted to keep him close.

He gently laid the necklace back down, his touch lovingly caressing her skin as he did. Finally managing to pull his hand away from her, he took in a deep breath and glanced around before his eyes stopped on the bottle of sleeping pills on her nightstand.

No wonder she wasn't waking up, he thought to himself, with as well as he knew her –he'd bet a large amount of money that she'd taken a much higher dose than prescribed and probably chased it down with wine from the open bottle on her nightstand.

Walking over to her dresser, he surveyed the various bottles lined up in their usual rows of three. Taking a moment to glance over his shoulder to check on her, he then picked up her perfume and brought the decorative glass bottle to his nose and breathed deeply in the familiar scent, letting his head fill with thoughts of Bird as he did so –memories of how she'd felt in his arms when she'd hugged him and he'd been able to smell how the perfume mixed with the chemistry of her body. It was an entirely different experience than simply catching the scent in passing or even smelling it directly from the bottle.

Ever so gently, Oswald sat the bottle back in is rightful place and took caution to turn the bottle to the exact position Bird always had it in.

He still had the scent of her perfume tickling his nose as he walked over to her closet and pulled the doors open, right away he noticed differences from the last time he'd checked through it. There were several new dresses he hadn't seen before and they weren't the style of dress that Fish had been forcing her to wear either. He glanced back to where Bird was sleeping in the bed, silently wondering what her occasion for dressing up was.  
Of course, if he had it his way, she'd dress elegantly more often –the sight of her in an expensive, form fitting evening gown was enough to leave him breathless.

Sliding some of the hangers to the side, he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight he was met with. The beautiful dresses weren't the only new additions to her closet –there were also a few men's suits off to the left side.

Suits fit for someone at least three to five inches taller than he was. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the clothes had to belong to Harvey Dent.

A bitter taste stung at his tongue and his hands were suddenly clammy with the realization that the only reason he'd need to keep a few changes of clothes at Bird's apartment would be because he'd been staying the night there.

Whirling around from where he was standing to face the bed, he was revolted by the comprehension of the acts that had surely been taking place there. It wasn't like it hadn't crossed his mind that with the longer she and Harvey were in a relationship that it would take a physical turn –but it made him ill to think about.

Not only in the sense that it meant Harvey was getting to do the things with Bird that Oswald had only dreamed about, but knowing what she'd been through –he also understood the degree of trust she must have had in him to take that step.

For so long now, Oswald had been convincing himself that Bird's relationship with Harvey was destined to be short lived and now the reassurances he'd been giving himself since the beginning were starting to waver and the idea of Bird giving herself –both physically and emotionally to another man wasn't a reality he could stand to live in.

It took every ounce of strength in his now trembling body to pull the closet doors shut and not destroy the clothing that didn't belong there. So badly he wanted to take all of Harvey's clothes from the closet out and burn them, search through all of her drawers for any other trace of the lawyer and add it to the flames. Burn it all down and erase every last trace of him from Bird's life, he wanted to kill him –slowly and painfully, until Gotham City was painted red with his blood.

But he couldn't; it was his own love for Bird that stopped him from taking such extreme actions. Selfishly, it wasn't because he knew the loss would hurt her –it was his fear of losing her in his life that kept him from taking Harvey Dent out.  
If she ever found out, he'd lose her from his life permanently and that would be an even worse reality to live in.

His breathing was labored as he hobbled back through her living room to the front door, he needed to get out of there. He'd always felt at home in her apartment, but things were different now –there was a shift in the air and now he felt like an intruder.

 **~(A few days later)~**

Bird stood from her couch and walked over to the bookcase in her living room, she'd been sitting in the same spot for so long that it was painful to move now. It felt like thousands of tiny little needles were being pushing through her feet.

With sadness in her eyes she looked down to the purple flower in her hand, she'd taken a late evening walk to get some air and while wandering around the city she'd ended up outside of Liza's apartment building where she saw a planter of the same type of flower that Falcone had dropped near Liza's body after he killed her.

Before she'd been able to stop herself, she'd plucked up one of the fully bloomed flowers and brought it back home with her. Brushing her thumb over the soft petals, she laid it down on the shelf and pulled out the white envelope from underneath the glass paperweight and stared down to her father's writing.  
It had been months since her parents had been killed and she still couldn't find the strength to actually open the letter he'd left for her.

Taking it with her back to the couch she sat back down and for a moment debated with herself on opening the letter until she heard a knock on her door.

With a groan, she stood up and walked to her door. Opening it without even looking through the peephole, she was met by Harvey's concerned face as he asked in a rushed voice, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" She breathed, not sure why he seemed so worried as she stepped to the side to let him by.

"You didn't sound okay the last time we talked on the phone and you haven't answered any of my calls since." He explained his cause for alarm, but was met by an even more confused expression from her when she pointed out, "We just talked yesterday."

"No, we spoke on Tuesday." He argued.

"It's Wednesday."

"Starling, it's Thursday night."

"Oh god…" She breathed, lowering her head in shame and rubbing her forehead as she asked, "Is it really?"

"Yes." He nodded watching her as she gathered up some empty beer bottles from the coffee table and disappeared into the kitchen to throw them away and try to make her apartment look like less of a wreck.

Sitting down on her couch, he moved to the side and reached between the cushions when he felt something hard underneath him.

His eyebrows lowered when he pulled out of a bottle of pain pills.

"Sorry everything is such a mess-" she started to say as she sat down next to him, stopping in her tracks when she saw what he had.

"What are these for?" He asked looking at her.

"I fell at work, slid on something wet on the floor and hit my face on a table." She said, moving her hair to show him her swollen and bruised cheek from where Falcone had backhanded her, "Chipped a tooth." She effortlessly lied with a shrug.

"These are dated for a few months ago." He pointed out.

"I know." She nodded, "I got those when my car slid off the road in the rain, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember, but-"

"I dug them out of the back of my medicine cabinet." She shrugged, looking at him and he leaned in closer to get a better look at her eyes, he could see her pupils were merely pinpoints in her eyes.

"How many did you take?" He questioned with a gruffness to his tone that caught her off guard.

"I-"

"And you were drinking with these? You cannot mix these pills with alcohol, it's dangerous." He lectured.

Not appreciating his tone, she argued, "I only had a few beers."

"And apparently lost all of Wednesday from your memory!"

"Don't yell at me." Bird pleaded with a slight whimper in her voice.

"I'm not yelling." He defended, closing his eyes to take a breath when he realized he had been and was currently still yelling at her, though he'd never meant to.

"Okay…" He breathed, trying to take in another calming breath. Looking her over he noticed how dark the circles around her eyes were and he wasn't sure if her cheeks looked hollow or if it was just the dim lighting.

"When was the last time you ate?" He questioned, finally getting his voice back to an indoor level.

"What's today again?" She asked, leaning back onto the couch further and pinning her eyes shut from her own question and preparing for the outburst she was sure would follow it.

"Thursday, Starling… it is Thursday!" He yelled, and looked down when he felt the plastic bottle crack from the iron tight grip he was clutching it with.

"You're yelling." She pointed out the obvious before admitting, "Probably Sunday night or Monday morning."

When she finally got the strength to look back at him she was met by a blank almost stunned expression, before he questioned, "What the hell have you been doing since then? Going on a bender?"

"I don't know." She sighed, "I've had a really rough couple of days and I probably just took a few too many pills and I guess chasing them down with beer didn't help. I'm sorry."

"I thought we had everything out in the open now." He said, his tone was steady but there was a look in his brown eyes like he could possibly snap at any second.

"We do!" She exclaimed, looking amused as she questioned, "What? You think I'm addicted to pain killers, really?"

"I'm getting the feeling you're holding something back from me… again."

Bird's jaw tensed as she stared at him, he'd already proven he was willing to hang in there with her through all of her earlier lies. Even after finding out enough about her that she'd have bet money he'd have left her over, he was still there and a part of her wanted to admit to him that she did have trouble with substance abuse.  
Tell him the truth about it all, but just like he got the old feeling of being lied to –her fears of abandonment were creeping back in and she was afraid after growing up with an alcoholic, abusive father, that learning she suffered from her own addictions might be enough to finally drive him away.

Swallowing hard, she let the feelings of pain she'd been trying to fight off flood over her and she used them to her advantage as tears welled in her eyes and she admitted, "I lied… but it's not what you think. I lied about falling at work, the truth is someone hit me –hard and I lost one of my friends that same day. When I got home, I was hurting and so I did dig those pills out from the back of the cabinet and I took a few. Apparently, a few too many. So I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop clutching onto that bottle like I'm some crazed junkie about to pry it from your fingers."

Rubbing her face she continued, "If you want to flush them down the toilet, go ahead. I don't plan on taking anymore anyways."

Slowly setting the bottle down on her coffee table, he said, "I know we agreed I wouldn't ask you about your job and that you wouldn't tell me about it, but if something is bothering you or something bad happens –you can tell me. You can always tell me anything."

She wasn't sure if it was because she actually needed to talk about what happened, or if it was more so a manipulation to make him feel guilty, to where he'd stay with her –either way she took in a rattling breath and admitted, "You remember before we started dating, when you ran into me and my friend at that diner?"

"Yes, uh… Liza, right?" He recalled.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, her chin quivering as she explained, "She's dead."

"Oh my god…" He breathed, turning to face her as he asked, "What happened?"

"She was killed." Bird admitted, reaching up to wipe a stray tear away. "Right in front of me, and now I can't sleep. I just keep seeing her face and I… I should have done something, but I was afraid."

"Who killed her?" He asked, taking her hand in his and holding onto her tightly.

"Are you asking me as a district attorney or my boyfriend?"

When he didn't answer she shook her head and let out a weak, bitter laugh. "It doesn't matter anyways, it's doesn't matter who killed her. It just matters that she's gone and I'm so tired of feeling like that. There's this swirling black ball of loss inside my stomach and every time I lose someone else I care about, it just keeps growing and…"

When her voice trailed off, his eyes dropped back to the bottle of pills and he could no longer blame her for trying to ease the pain she was feeling.

"I'm sorry." He softly said, looking back to her. "I can't imagine what you must be feeling right now, but you cannot chase that pain with pills or by chasing down the bottom of the bottle. I understand that you're probably used to dealing with this on your own, but you're not alone anymore. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere."

When the room stayed silent he added, "And I'm sorry for yelling… it just scares me. I'm already worried every time you leave for work that something is going to happen and all day yesterday you wouldn't pick up when I called."  
With a defeated sigh he admitted, "My mind goes into thoughts of losing you, into those dark places and it scares me. The idea of losing you…" Swallowing hard, his voice trailed off and he shook his head.

Leaning in he pressed a kiss to her lips and wiped the salty tear from her cheek away with his thumb as he tried his best to put on a smile and say, "You know, I think we'd both feel a lot better if you ate something. I know some places not too far away that stay open late."

If for no other reason than simply not wanting to be on her own, Bird nodded in agreement and watched him as he stood up and turned back to her. She saw his eyes fall back to the pill bottle a few times and finally she picked it up and handed it to him –he gave a small nod of thanks and disappeared into her bedroom to get to the bathroom.

She blew out a heavy sigh when she heard the toilet flush. When she picked her jacket up and started to pull it on, she wasn't sure what bothered her more about it. The fact that she was now down a bottle of pills, or the fact that she'd let him believe that would solve the problem, while knowing she had several more bottles tucked away in hiding places around her apartment.

 **~(Later that week)~**

Leaning forward on the small bench in front of her vanity, Bird applied another coat of mascara to dramatize the smoky eye makeup she'd spent the last several minutes applying.

Swiping a light coat of a shiny, pale pink lip gloss over her lips, she stood from the bench and grabbed her purse up from the foot of the bed and started to walk out of her room, before she rushed back over to her dresser and picked up the gift wrapped box she'd prepared for that night. After taking the elevator down to the ground floor of her apartment building and heading out the side exit closest to where she'd parked her car, Bird paused as a gust of cold night air hit her in the face and nearly stole the breath from her lungs.

For a moment it felt like the air was too much to handle and left her feeling dizzy, enough so, that she almost turned back around and went inside. It had been a few days since she'd been out of her apartment and she'd barely left earlier that week either.

She'd spent the majority of her waking hours lost in a haze; at times feeling nothing at all and on rare occasions feeling too much –feeling everything all at once in the instances she'd been reduced to a broken version of herself curled up in a fetal position on the floor.  
It wasn't just pain and loss from losing her parents and now a friend, she felt a deep sense of loss for how things used to be.

She and Oswald were on a mission to rule Gotham, and over the years of talking and planning for that day to come, it had never fully occurred to her how much it would shake the foundations holding her together, when they actually started to succeed.

Fish was now out of the way and they were closer than before to claiming their thrones, and so she nearly felt crazy for missing how things used to be. Back when she worked nights at the club and Oswald was their boss's umbrella boy. Those weren't the most glamorous jobs, but it was a simpler time and the routine had offered stability that she'd grown to depend on.

Now her entire life was on shaky ground. Oswald was making moves without telling her and she'd kept things hidden from him as well. Her relationship was Harvey was uncharted territory that at times she felt like she was mostly failing to navigate. Her little brother was growing up and needed her more now than ever, since losing their parents.  
She was torn. Seeing the person she needed to be, and feeling stuck in her own skin and the life she'd created.

It wasn't as though Liza was the first person she'd lost that was dear to her, but watching her be killed right in front of her eyes had affected in her ways that no other loss had.  
Standing by and letting someone far more innocent than she was, be killed while she did nothing to stop it had forced her to take a look inside of herself while she questioned what kind of person could do that?

A coward; was the conclusion she'd came too and it was a hard reality to swallow. She knew all too well of the many negative traits she possessed, but she'd never really considered cowardice to be one of them. She'd risked her life for people around her several times, stepped up and took on tasks that others were afraid too, she'd spoken her mind to Don Falcone on several occasions and in doing so had felt a sense of bravery residing within her.  
A false sense, apparently.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she forced her legs to walk towards her parked car. It had been nearly a week since she'd seen or spoken to Oswald, and the silence had been all her doing. He'd reached out to her several times, called and left her many messages –in the last few he'd asked her to come to Fish's club on Saturday night because he was showing the place to his mother and they'd both love to see her there.

As much as she wanted to wallow in the feeling of loss and mourning, she knew she'd have to start living life again eventually and with the way she was feeling it would be easier to spend time with Oswald than it would to spend the night with Harvey.

Her best friend would just let her be and not ask questions, unlike Harvey who expected her to open up to him.  
It wasn't until she'd gotten involved with him that she'd understood how much work has to be put into relationships to make them work, she loved him with all of her heart –but at times being one-half of a couple was exhausting, especially when she was barely holding things together.

 **~()~**

"Bird." Oswald greeted, rushing over to where his friend had just came in the door of the club. Stopping just in front of her, he looked down to the black dress she was wearing and immediately recognized it as one of her newer ones he'd found while searching her closet.

His blue eyes moved back up as he continued to look her over, her hair was laying perfectly in large, loose curls and while he thought she looked beautiful without make-up, he couldn't deny how her choice of make-up for the night only enhanced her natural beauty.

His throat felt dry as he continued to stare at her, she looked nothing short of a fairytale standing in front of him.

"I'm so glad you came." He smiled, "You look-"

Her darkly lined brown eyes darted around their surroundings before she cut him off and explained, "I don't know how long I'll be staying."

Running his tongue over his lips he nodded, choosing not to point out to her how rude it was to interrupt someone while they were talking.

"I mainly came to see your mother." Bird continued, feeling like her throat was starting to close up as she looked over to near the bar where she'd watched Falcone kill Liza.

Stepping in front of her to try and block her sight from the same spot she kept staring at, Oswald kept a tight smile on his lips as he said, "Yes, of course. She'll be happy to see you."

He led her into the main room where the stage was, and remained silent as he helped her remove her coat and laid it down in one of the red leather seats at a booth where there was a bottle of expensive champagne on ice at the table, with a tray of glasses and a stack of pointed metallic silver party hats.

"Mother-" Oswald started to call out to get her attention, but he didn't get to finish his sentence when she let out a surprised gasp and rushed towards them.

Bird smiled at the sight of her best friend's eccentric mother, someone that she herself had come to love.

"Mrs. Kapelput." Bird smiled willingly accepting the tight embrace Oswald's mother had locked her in.

"My little Starling-Bird, you came to the party!" She replied, causing Bird's smile to widen at the familiar heavy accent in Gertrude's voice.

Stepping back she loving rubbed her hands over Bird's arms and exclaimed, "Always so strong, she is!" With a pat on the young woman's cheek she added as she looked to Oswald, "And so beautiful."

"Yes, mother." He agreed, nodding with a sheepish expression on his face as she stared at him with an expectant expression on her face.

"I haven't seen you in months!" Gertrude said, her forehead lining with disappointment as she said, "Oswald tells me you've been seeing someone."

"I have." Bird admitted, glancing at Oswald from the corner of her eye, but he avoided her gaze as he started to pour the champagne into several glasses.

"Now, come and tell me all about him." She said, catching Bird off guard as she glanced back over to Oswald who was still avoiding her eyes.

"Well, he's a lawyer-" she started to explain but was quickly cut off as Gertrude let out an overly-dramatic gasp and lectured, "No, no, no. You must never trust a lawyer –all liars, they are."

"Not this one." Bird defended, "He's a good man."

Oswald took a drink from one of the glasses and turned back around to watch them. He dearly loved everything about his mother, but he'd seen from her interactions with others that not everyone else felt the same way. She did several things that most people didn't know how to respond too, like how she was currently standing so close to Bird that it appeared she had no concept of personal space.

Bird didn't seem the least bit off put from his mother's antics though; she never did. Which Oswald was thankful for, he feared with their first meeting that his mother wouldn't like her and that Bird, as usual when feeling offended would be confrontational and the day would end in disaster.

To his surprise, when they first met years ago, Gertrude seemed to take almost an immediate liking to Bird –he thought it might have had something to do that the first time they met was when she'd helped him home after he'd mouthed off to the wrong person and had been badly beaten.  
Once Gertrude heard that Bird had defended her son and fought the men off of him, she'd expressed a great fondness for her, and to Oswald's embarrassment, asked her to watch out for and protect him from any further harm.

"Does he treat you right?" Gertrude questioned.

"Yes." Bird admitted with a small smile, "He treats me very well."

The older woman nodded and gave a smile that seemed to have some traces of sadness.

As Oswald stepped up beside Bird, Gertrude looked between them and the traces of sadness Bird noticed before faded away and his mother smiled brightly at them. In her eyes Bird was the only woman even remotely worthy of receiving her precious son's affections. Bird came from a good, prominent family and had always treated her with the utmost respect and watched out for Oswald –not to mention that most of all, Bird had shown no signs of wanting to take her son away from her, but seemed to rather enjoy being around them both at the same time.

"I'm glad he treats you well." She said, a twinkle in her eye as she continued, "But no one would treat you as well as my Oswald."

"Mother!" Oswald scolded, closing his eyes and pulling in a deep breath. As much as he loved how well she and Bird got along, he could do without her anything but subtle comments.

"Shush!" she scolded him right back, looking between them as she stepped forward and reached up, placing a hand on both of their outer cheeks and added, "A mother knows these things."

"And now my boy has a club." She swooned, her gaze focusing on her son as she smiled with a sense of pride that almost had her feeling like she was floating on a cloud. Oswald had never done anything to disappoint her, but she'd never been as proud of him as she was now.

Reaching over, Bird picked the gift box up from the table she'd brought with her and held it out to Gertrude who gasped, "A present… for me?"

Bird smiled and nodded, watching as she pulled the glossy yellow ribbon from the black box, then removed the lid to reveal a stunning diamond encrusted tiara nestled among bright, colorful tissue paper.

"So beautiful!" She gasped, pulling the tiara from the box and exclaiming, "A crown!"  
Placing it on top of her hair, she adjusted it until it was centered and said, "I look like royalty, no?"

Both Oswald and Bird nodded in agreement with her words, and Oswald watched as his mother stepped forward and kissed Bird on the cheek –leaving a smear of her bright red lipstick on his friend's cheek. Stepping back she smiled at both of them as she started to twirl in a slow circle and said, "A perfect night…perfect party… in a palace!"

"Gabe." Oswald said, waving a hand for his most trusted henchman to come over to them, when he did Oswald cleared his throat and nodded towards the stage where a band was playing soft, classical music for the evening.

Understanding, Gabe nodded and said, "Come on, Mrs. K, let's dance."

With a thrilled smile, she giggled from the excitement of the evening and retrieved a glass of champagne from the table as she let Gabe lead her to just in front of the stage to dance.

"She's so happy." Bird observed, watching Oswald's mother swaying happily in sync to the music with Gabe who towered over her both in height and width.

"It's a good night." Oswald softly said, watching Bird as he spoke. Finally, he reached up towards her cheek and said, "I'm afraid my mother's lipstick brushed off on your cheek."

Standing still, she let him rub the red matter off her face, before she gave a small nod in thanks and asked, "Falcone gave you the club already? How are you going to run it while you're still working for Maroni?"

"It's not official." He explained, "Not yet."

Bird nodded, seeming to look everywhere in the room except for at him.

"I feel I should apologize for the way we left things… I was too hash when what you needed was understanding." Oswald finally said, letting out the breath he'd been holding as he spoke in a rushed tone, like he couldn't get the words out fast enough. "It means a lot to me that you came tonight."

Her brown eyes focused back on him as she questioned, "Why is your mom wearing Liza's scarf?"

His blue eyes bugged slightly, he'd hoped and thought she hadn't noticed the pale pink scarf around his mother's neck.

"She found it here." He explained, clearing his throat when it felt like the air was too thick around him to breath, "I couldn't very well tell her why the scarf was here."

"Finders keepers, right?" Bird asked, picking up a glass of champagne as she spoke.

"Yes, I suppose so…" He breathed, watching her closely when she started to laugh.

"Perfect." She replied, shaking her head as she continued to laugh in an almost maniacal tone that made it clear the loss of her friend had left her in an unstable place. Oswald watched her closely as he deduced this was a situation where if she didn't laugh, she just might cry.

 **~(Later that night)~**

Oswald made his way back to the table he'd been sitting at in the club. He smiled as he saw his mother was still having the time of her life dancing with Gabe to slow music from the live band. He was happy knowing how proud she was of him, but he couldn't shake the disappointed feeling he'd had for the last several minutes when Bird had seemed to disappear.

He'd searched the downstairs of the club for her, even knocking on the door of the ladies restroom –but he couldn't find her anywhere.

Blowing out a breath, he refilled his glass from the bottle of champagne on the table and slid down in his seat. He wasn't going to let his current mood sour the night for his mother –even if he no longer felt like attending the small party he'd arranged to show Gertrude the club.

Oswald remained lost in his own head while slowly nursing his second glass of champagne as he debated whether he should call Bird to see where she'd disappeared too. As he shifted on the seat, he kicked something under the table and leaned to the side to look under the edge where he saw a black pair of strappy high-heels and quickly realize they were Bird's shoes.

Sitting back up, he looked around and saw her off to the far side of the room, lost in her own world as she swayed her hips side to side. Her eyes were closed and there was a half empty glass in her hand as she moved back and forth.

Oswald watched her, completely mesmerized with every single move she made.  
He had no idea what song she was dancing to, because her movements were completely off from the beat of the music playing, but he was sure whatever song she was moving to was his new favorite.

A smile fell over his lips as he continued to watch her.  
Of course there could be a live band playing perfectly acceptable music to dance to and she'd be off in her own world dancing to a song that no one else could hear. That was Bird –his Bird, and he'd give anything to be lost in it with her.

It wasn't until he'd nearly choked on air trying to take in a breath that he realized he'd been holding his breath, every soft sway of her hips drew him further into the moment with her and his mind fell blank with nothing except thoughts of Bird.  
How her brunette locks were shining like Christmas tinsel in the lighting, the way the fabric of her dress showed more of her bare legs with each movement and how it would feel to hold her in his arms.

Slowly, he stood up and moved closer to where she was still dancing barefoot, with her head tilted back and her eyes still closed with the silver pointed party hat sitting off center on top of her head.  
Oswald could have sworn time stood still as he walked closer and he became aware of nothing else in the world besides her. It was unearthly how the world faded away and left him with only the vision of her dancing in the spotlight.

"What song are you dancing to?" He quietly asked as he came to a stop beside her.

Opening her eyes she looked at him before setting her glass down on the edge of the stage next to her and shrugged, "I can't remember the name of the song."

"It must be a lovely aria." He replied, his voice soft as he spoke and continued to look at her like she was the center of his entire world, "I only wish I could hear it with you."

"You want to dance with me then?" She questioned, still moving ever so slightly to the tune she was hearing in her head.

"Me?" He exclaimed, giving her a look like she'd just told a joke. He was never much of a dancer to begin with, but with his leg as bad as it was and the constant pain he was in, there was no way he could be a suitable dancing partner now.

"Sometimes it's better to feel music than hear it." Bird pointed out.

"I'm afraid I couldn't keep up." He declined, doing his best to smile.

"It's just swaying back and forth." She argued with a laugh.

"But you don't have shoes on and I could step on you-"

"If I put my shoes back on, I'll be taller than you."

Seeing the disappointed expression on his face she smiled, "You don't have to, Oswald. It was just a friendly offer."

"I'd like to dance with you." He quickly said and the truth was he'd have given every worldly possession he owned to share in the music only she could hear, to hold her body closely against him and feel the clocks stop ticking for them, "But at the moment I have some things I need to tend to."

With a smile she nodded and picked her glass back up and took a drink as she watched the band playing music on the stage and Oswald hobbled back over to the table he'd spent most of the night sitting at and watched as Gabe counted his dancing steps out loud, causing Gertrude to laugh as she snuggled against him while they danced.

"You're so graceful for a big man." She cooed, looking towards Oswald as she asked, "Isn't he graceful?"

"Yes, mother." Oswald agreed, shaking his head as he spoke.

It wasn't long until his gaze went back over to Bird, who had returned back to her slow swaying to the song in her head.

Picking up the glass of champagne he'd been slowly working on, he drank the rest down in one gulp before he stood up and started walking back towards Bird.  
For so long he'd let fears hold him back in nearly every department of his life, especially when it came to his feelings for Bird.

She looked perfect that night and deserved to have someone there to dance with, someone who loved and cared about her.

"If the offer is still open… yes, I would like nothing more than to dance with you." He politely said, getting her attention as she looked at him.

"What happened to the stuff you said you had to do?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's nowhere near as important as you." He said with a smile.

She smiled back at him, her eyes scanning over his face and his hair that was slicked down over his forehead in his usual style –and held back a laugh at the sight of the silver party hat on his head that was slightly off centered.

Stepping up to him, she rested her arms on his shoulders with her wrists locked behind his neck. Slowly, he placed his hands on her sides and slid them down until they rested comfortably on her waist.

Moving closer to him, Bird picked back up where she'd left off swaying along with the song she'd had in her head all night long.

After a few moments she whispered, "You've got to move with me."

"I intend to." Oswald stammered, now wondering how on earth he was going to move along with her when having her that close to him made it impossible to think clearly or even breathe normally.

"And maybe don't squeeze me like that." She added.

Closing his eyes, he pulled in a ragged breath at the realization that he'd been tightly holding onto her sides –unintentionally digging his fingers into her skin over the soft fabric of her dress.

This was a terrible idea, he thought to himself, but now it was too late to go back.

"Relax." She said, her eyebrows knotting as she questioned, "Why are you so tense?"

Swallowing hard he said, "I've never been very good at dancing."

"So what?" She chuckled, "Oswald look around, the only ones here beside us is your mom and Gabe… and the band you're paying to be here. No one here cares if you're good or bad at dancing."

He looked into her eyes, wanting to tell her that it wasn't what everyone thought of him that had him nervous –it was that being so close to her was making it hard for him to even breathe. But the longer he stared into her brown hues, the more at ease he felt and his grip loosened on her sides.

Slowly, and rather awkwardly at first, he started to move along with her. At first it was hard to keep the same rhythm, considering he couldn't hear the beat they were dancing too, but after a few minutes he understood what she'd meant about feeling the music rather than hearing it.

Swaying side to side with her in his arms became as effortless as breathing and when he moved even closer to her, his eyes closed as he breathed in the scent of her perfume and the scent of her hair conditioner.

He was so absorbed in the moment with her that he wasn't even aware of the constant pain he felt from his bad leg, and they stayed like that for several minutes.

Slowly they danced close together out of rhythm from the music of the band, neither of them saying anything to the other –neither of them needed to.

Oswald wasn't sure how long they'd been dancing when Bird leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder, looking out into the room as she continued to sway with him.

Lowering his head some his nose was buried in her silky hair as he breathed in deeply, letting the scent fill his nose on the way to his lungs, and his hands moved around to her lower back as he held her close.

She was in pain, he could clearly tell Liza's death had been hard on her and now for whatever reason she was there, looking to him for comfort and as he held her close, he swore he'd never let her go.  
Being so close to her –both physically and emotionally had awoken a feeling in him, like during those moments with her when he was able to touch heaven.

"I'm sorry." She quietly said, her eyes closing as she kept her head on his shoulder and didn't give him a chance to talk, "I know what happened to Liza wasn't your fault, truthfully I think knew from the moment I met her that she wasn't going to last long… and I shouldn't have acted the way I did with you."

"You lost someone important to you." He whispered back and she could feel him lightly shrug as he spoke –as if he'd already entirely dismissed her attitude towards him and they were perfectly fine.

"It scares me." Bird admitted, holding onto him tighter, "I mean losing Liza was horrible and I already miss her… but if I lost you…"

Her voice trailed off and she pulled in a breath as she asked, "Do you ever stop and think about all the risks we're taking day-to-day? I mean, is it really worth it?"

"Day-by-day… no, but when you look at it as one big picture. Yes, the risks are worth the payout in the end." Lowering his head again to breathe in more of her scent, he said, "It won't always be this way." He assured her.  
One day they'd be ruling Gotham, and then they'd be untouchable.

"That's what I'm afraid of." She silently whispered, so quietly he couldn't hear her over the music.  
There were many things in her life that she wanted to change, to change for the better, but there were also many things she didn't want to change and what she had with Oswald was one of those things.

Harvey fully expected her to starting cleaning her act up and change her ways and in truth she wanted that for herself, but she was also well aware that to leave her criminal life behind would more than likely mean losing her best friend and those thoughts caused the champagne bubbles to sit wrong on her stomach.

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you so much to Miss E Charlotte, xxXWolfsLullabyXxx, Love. Fiction. 2016, and 2lazy2signN for taking the time to review last chapter.  
The support means everything and keeps me inspired to get the new chapters up. **

**I hope all of the Oswald scenes in this chapter make up for the lack thereof in the last few chapters. ^_^**


	30. Here Comes Trouble

**XXX**

" _There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied in the one, I will indulge the other."_ _― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

* * *

Jim pulled the door open to the club and walked in, his every step felt heavy as he rounded the corner to the sound of classical music playing.

Earlier that week there had been a shootout at Fish's club and since then no one had seen the underboss of Falcone's. Knowing that Oswald had been trying to push Fish out from the beginning when he ratted on her to Montoya and Allen, he'd had a feeling that Oswald might be at the club.

It was for a good cause, he told himself, trying to justify his actions. He was there to ask for a favor from Oswald, something he hated himself for doing –but if being aided by a criminal was for the greater good than maybe there was some logic to it.  
And somehow, knowing that no one but himself would know, made it easier to stomach.

Walking into the main room of the club, Jim slowed to a stop realizing he'd inadvertently crashed some sort of small, private party. There was a decorated cake on one of the tables, champagne on another and a live band on the stage, an older woman he didn't recognize was dancing with one of the men he'd seen working for Oswald.

And even more surprising still was when he looked off to the side he saw Oswald was slowly dancing with a girl, who's head was on his shoulder facing towards the stage and away from him. His eyebrows lowered with a slight confusion as he quickly realized that he and his partner were dancing completely out of sync with the band.

Shaking his head at the sight in front of him, he internally started to talk himself out of staying to speak to him.

"Jim!" Oswald called out, upon seeing the man he now considered to be a friend standing in the club.

The detective offered a small smile and nod in his direction –which quickly changed to a staggered expression when the girl Oswald had been dancing with raised her head and looked at him and he realized it was Bird.

Jim looked between the pair as they started to walk towards him, both of them with their party hats off centered. Oswald looked ecstatic, smiling ear-to-ear, while Bird didn't seem quite as pleased.

"Come in." Oswald said, motioning with his hand as they walked closer. He pulled his hat off and sat it down on a table, but Bird kept hers on.

"Another handsome man at the party, I'm so lucky." Gertrude said, as she caught up with her son and stepped in front of him, offering her hand to Jim.

"This is Jim Gordon, the detective friend I was telling you about." Oswald explained to her, watching as Jim awkwardly raised his hand to accept hers, but it was clear from the manner in which she extended her hand that she expected a kiss on the back of her hand rather than a shake.

"Oh, so nice to meet a friend of Oswald's." She smiled, and took Jim a few moments to understand her as her thick accent was slurred from the large amount of champagne she'd been drinking in celebration, "I'm Gertrude Kapelput."

"Nice to meet you to… Mrs. Kapelput." Jim politely replied, eyeing Oswald and Bird before he lowered his head and pressed a quick kiss to the back of her hand, in response she let out a pleased hum and Oswald stuttered, "Uh, m-mother… Jim is here to discuss some very important business."

Bird held back a laugh as she watched Oswald turn his mother around and send her back towards Gabe who was waiting to pick back up with their dancing.

Once she was gone, Oswald let out a nervous laugh and held his arms out to the side like he had no explanation of what had just happened.

"A little soon to be celebrating, don't you think?" Jim questioned.

Ignoring the remark, Oswald motioned to a chair as he said, "Well, don't just stand there! Sit."

"This won't take long." Jim argued, hoping to get everything over with as quickly as possible.

"I insist." Oswald said, hobbling past him towards the table and moving a couple of chairs next to the one he'd motioned to, for him and Bird to sit in.

Letting out a sigh, Jim followed Bird towards the seat as she breezed past him.

Oswald smiled as he said, "I'm so very glad to see you, Jim Gordon. It's been far too long since we've seen each other. I was beginning to think you'd forgotten about me."

Jim looked even more uncomfortable with the situation as he admitted, "I need a favor. Do you know anything about a narcotics detective by the name of Arnold Flass?"

"Narcotics?" Oswald asked, looking down with a smirk as he said, "Sounds more like Bird's area of expertise."

Moving her chair closer to them, she shot Oswald a look before looking to Jim and sighing, "Flass can be kind of a dick sometimes, but he's decent enough-"

"He's not decent." Jim cut her off.

"Does this have anything to do with the man who supposedly killed himself at the police station?" She asked, waiting for a nod before she smirked, "Knew it, I mean who goes to the police station to off themselves? So you think Flass killed him?"

"It's an open investigation." He quickly said, but in his rush to dismiss it only sparked her interest more as she said, "Come on, Jim. You want my help with something… the least you can do is be honest with me."

"Why does it matter to you anyways?" He retorted.

"She likes to stay up to date with current events." Oswald answered for her, and Jim looked between then as his jaw tensed when Bird nodded, "Precisely."

Dealing with either of them alone was a headache most days, but trying to deal with them together was an entirely different story, it was like they weren't happy until they'd burrowed underneath his skin.

"Fine…" He breathed, "There was a murder at the docks and then Leon Winkler, who was our only witness willing to speak on the matter ended up dead at the police station. I've been following the trail and honestly it's panning out to look like it must have been an inside job. I'm investigating Flass and his crew for the murder, but I've hit a wall. He's too well connected."

"Okay, so what do you want me to do?" Bird asked with an emotionless expression and Oswald grinned at the irritated look on Jim's face. It was clear exactly what Jim was asking out of them, but Bird was forcing him to outright ask for the help.

"I was hoping since Maroni runs the drug trade that you could find someone with the goods on Flass." He said, looking to Oswald as he spoke. Clearing his throat he looked back to Bird as he added, "I'm asking for help with this case. Winkler was an innocent man, a civilian who wound up dead for trying to do the right thing."

Oswald looked to Bird who nodded that she had a few ideas of people who'd be able to give up evidence on Flass.

"But-" Jim started to say until he was cut off by Oswald who assured him, "Say no more –favor is done."

"I can take care of it tonight." Bird nodded.

"And what do I owe you in return?" Jim asked the pair, with his teeth barred in a tight smile.

"Friends don't owe friends silly, they just do favors because they want to –because they're friends." Oswald said with a bright smile and Bird felt a little bad at seeing how much Oswald appreciated Jim, when it seemed like the detective only had use for him when he needed a favor.

"We are all friends… right Jim?" Bird asked, her stare harsh as it landed on him.

"Friends." He nodded, still straining to keep the smile on his face.

Looking between them he instructed, "No one gets hurt."

Bird's face contorted as she started to argue, "How the hell do you think I'm going to get anyone to cooperate then-"

"Of course." Oswald cut in nodding to Jim as he agreed, "No one gets hurt."  
Looking around his eyes landed on the ice bucket and he exclaimed, "Champagne."

"Actually I should be-" Jim started to say he needed to leave, but wasn't given the chance as Oswald nearly tripped over his own feet getting up and trying to scramble to the table to pour him a drink.

"I think you should stay for that drink." Bird said, standing up and walking closer as she lowered her voice and said, "It would be rude to leave so suddenly… you are among _friends_ after all."

Jim looked up to her with a skeptical expression on his face, but it was clear to see that she wasn't going to do him any favors if he left immediately.

Oswald returned with three glasses of champagne in his hands, he handed one to Jim who took it and fought to keep the diminishing smile on his face.

"Cheer up, Jim." Bird smirked, pulling the party hat off her own head and placing it on top of his head as she let the rubber band chin strap snap harshly against his skin, "It's a party after all."

With that she took her glass from Oswald and swiftly drank it down before walking towards the bar.

 **~()~**

"I'm getting the feeling you're not too happy with me." Jim said as he found Bird sitting on the bar with her legs hanging off and her feet resting on one of the stools.

"Those are some mighty fine investigative skills there, detective." Bird replied, picking up the vodka and soda she'd mixed for herself that had three little decorative drink umbrellas poking out of the top and adding, "By the way, congrats on getting reinstated as a detective."

His eyebrows raised in response to her not only her words, but the tone of voice she'd taken with him.

"Do you know how many friends Oswald has?" She questioned, not letting him get a word in as she explained. "Two; he has two friends. I'm friend number one; I'll always be friend one –and you're friend two."

"Why are you telling me this?" Jim asked stepping closer to the bar and watching as she took another drink from her glass.

"Because Oswald thinks you're his friend, Jim. He thinks he's found a real friend in you and maybe I'm a little cynical, but I'm seeing a guy who pops in from time to time when he needs something done that might soil his white gloves." Bird answered, setting her glass down on the bar and adding more vodka to it as she muttered, "You see, he's my friend number one too and I can get a little protective."

"You don't say." He breathed, looking around before he asked, "Are you mad at me because I showed up asking for help, or is this because of something else?"

"Why does it even matter… according to you, I'm not even good enough to date Harvey Dent, so yeah, I guess it's pretty clear where the two of us stand."

He pulled in a deep breath and nodded, he'd thought she was holding onto some anger from that day. One thing he'd learned about her was that she was quick to anger and slow to forgive.

"I was out of line." Jim admitted, "I had no right to say anything about your personal life, it's none of my business."

"Are you saying that because you're really sorry, or because you need my help?"

"I mean it." He assured her.  
He'd been quick to judge, thinking that with her being a criminal and Harvey being one of the only honest lawyers in Gotham that she'd had motives behind entering into a relationship with him, but in seeing them interact with one another he'd quickly realized he'd been wrong. Harvey clearly cared for Bird, and by all accounts she seemed just as sincere in her feelings.

"Thank you." Bird said, as she sat her glass back down on the bar next to her and looked around, until Jim asked, "Just out of curiosity though… does Dent know much about this part of your life?"

"No." Bird lied, knowing that if she went down for a crime and anyone found out Harvey knew about her criminal activities that he could also get into trouble. "He knows I work in nightclubs and that's about it. For obvious reasons I keep different aspects of my life as separate as possible."

His head cocked to the side as he watched her, wondering how long she thought that could work –the truth was bound to come out sooner or later, it always does.

As he turned to leave, he looked back to see her staring down into her glass and he almost immediately picked up on the sadness in her expression –very similar to the look she'd been wearing a couple days before when she showed up at the police station.

"It had something to do with the shootout that happened here last week, didn't it?" He questioned, bringing her mind back to the present.

"What?"  
She'd barely gotten the word out before he walked back up to her and clarified, "The jane doe that washed up from the river. You came into the station and claimed the body. It's all connected to what happened here at the club and that bruise on your face, isn't it?"

Thinking back to how she'd claimed Liza's body and paid for a proper funeral for her fallen friend, Bird swallowed hard and bit down on the side of her tongue while she held her silence and opted to not open up to him.

"She was a friend?" Jim guessed, pushing when she stayed quiet.

Taking a drink from her glass, Bird ignored his question and countered with one of her own. "You know what I find myself thinking about more and more?" Not giving him a chance to answer, she continued, "That day you grew balls of steel and charged the Falcone Mansion. You were so sure of yourself, so convinced you were doing the right thing. To the point of willing to go out in a blaze of glory if it meant bringing the biggest crime boss in Gotham down."

She paused, momentarily lost in her own head with thoughts of how she missed that feeling. The feeling of being so entirely sure of being on the right path. Anymore she found herself second guessing not only the future, but nearly decision she'd made in the past.

Blowing out a breath, Bird asked, "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if things had went differently that day? If you'd arrested Falcone and me along with him, like you were trying to do?"

With a small shrug, he reasoned, "We'd never have made it past the gate."

"Yeah, our bodies would have been turned to swiss cheese, but I just can't stop thinking about it. Can't stop wondering how Gotham would be right now with Falcone gone. You know?" Bird asked, her voice a little slurred as she ever so softly swayed to the live music. Seeming like she was having trouble staying in the moment, as if she were being pulled into a different world.

Of course he'd wondered how differently things might have gone had he not surrendered that day, but he'd learned a long time ago that the 'what ifs' in life get you nowhere.

His eyes squinted as he studied the lost look in her eyes and asked, "You think you made the wrong decision that day?"

"Standing at Falcone's side like a good little solider?" Bird scoffed, shaking her head.

"I don't know." She admitted with a shrug, "I did what I had to do that day. Anything other than standing by his side would have been a betrayal to the Don and then by rites, I would have been killed."

Before Jim could say anything else, Bird sighed, "I don't know. Sometimes I think I spend so much time doing the things I have to do to survive that I sometimes forget I actually have a choice in the matter."

"You always have a choice." Jim pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's easier not to, right? If you survive by doing what you have to do… the animal instinct to survive, then that doesn't leave a lot of room for guilt." She shrugged, and took another drink from her glass.

When he didn't say anything, Bird looked up and didn't miss the look of concern on his face.

"Sounds like you've been doing some soul searching…" He gathered. His eyes glued to her as he pulled in a deep breath and looked around the club before asking, "Aside from it signing your own death warrant… if you're not supportive of Don Falcone, why did you side with him that day? I was trying to bring him in; bring him down."

"There are bigger things at play, Jim Gordon." Bird arched a brow as she spoke. "Falcone's days are numbered, but that day you stormed his house… it just wasn't the right time."

"What are you talking about?" Jim asked, taking a step closer to where she was still sitting on the bar. "Bigger things at play… to what? Take Falcone down? What are you planning?"

The smug smile on her lips clashed with the still lost and saddened expression in her eyes, as she stubbornly sat her drink down and raised her hand to her face in an impression of zipping her lips shut. She felt like she'd already said too much.

"Really?" He complained, clearly annoyed by the childish move. "Bird, if something like that is going to happen-"

"Then you'll be happy, right? I mean you want Falcone gone as much as the rest of us." She cut him off.

"Yeah, but not if you're going to get yourself killed in the process." He quickly answered.

He caught a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips, before she pulled on a stone expression and cautioned, "Careful Jim, don't get too close. I am a criminal after all, remember?"

With that she slid off the bar and roughly patted his upper arm with a promise that she'd make sure he got the information he needed to implicate Flass by the next day, before she turned and headed back over to where Oswald was sitting in a booth.

Jim glanced at them one last time before he left the club, hoping that Oswald was telling the truth when he'd promised no one would be hurt in the process.

 **~()~**

"Gabe is dropping my mother off at home on his way to help Jim." Oswald announced as he sat an ice bucket with a new bottle of champagne down on the bar and looked at Bird as he asked, "Where is it that you're sending him?" He barely got his words out before he raised the bottle and drank as much of it down as he could in one swallow.

"To another detective who works closely with Flass –Detective Delaware, who happens to really love his wife." She admitted with a twisted smile on her lips as she drank down the last of her vodka soda and shrugged, "I suggested he rough her up until Delaware gives up the evidence, but Gabe thought holding her underwater until he talks would be more effective."

"Might as well let him have some fun." Oswald agreed, drinking down another mouthful of the champagne.

Jim had told him that it was too early to celebrate, but Oswald felt differently. Having Fish Mooney out of the picture was one of the best things to happen in his life lately. It was perfect, in his mind she was getting what she deserved and it was one less enemy for him to concern himself with.

He felt giddy, he was excited at how things were falling into place and there was also a new found sense of hope building up inside of him. After months and months of worrying about everything, he finally felt carefree –maybe it was the alcohol or the fact that he felt closer to Bird than he had in a long time, either way it was a feeling of pure gold that he didn't want to lose.

Bird watched with a laugh as Oswald walked over to the wall and leaned against where there was a large sculpture on the wall of fish bones and drank down more of the bottle before he showered the sculpture with a mouthful of champagne and started to laugh manically.  
She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her friend this happy and being near him in that state of mind was actually starting to lift her own spirits.

The pair spent the next several minutes drinking and spinning around the bar, just enjoying the freedom of the night and successes they'd won. After a while, Bird went behind the stage to turn the radio on and stayed behind the stage for a while, dancing and spinning around by herself as she got lost in the music.

When she remerged, she checked the time and saw it had gotten much later than she'd expected and if she had much more to drink she'd have to flag down a taxi to get her back home.

Picking her shoes up off the floor she walked by the bar, laughing at her best friend as she saw him swipe a finger through the icing of the cake he'd forgotten to serve at the party and lick it off.

"Are you leaving?" He asked, stumbling towards her as he saw her leaning against the wall with her shoes in her hand.

"It's late." She pointed out, watching as he sat the nearly empty bottle of champagne down on the bar and walked towards her.

"It is." He agreed, nodding. Though in many ways the night still felt young and so full of possibilities, he felt invincible for the first time in a long time.

Bird lowered her head for a moment before she looked up and realized for the first time that night that under his black suit jacket he was wearing a shiny purple waistcoat.

"Hey, you're wearing my favorite color." She smiled as she raised her head back up to look at him, immediately regretting the fast movement when the room started to tilt on its side.

With a pained groan she closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall until the dizzy feeling faded.

"I know." He replied, after learning that purple was her favorite color he'd padded his closet with several decorative waistcoats in that color, "The color of royals." He added, as he moved closer.

As she opened her eyes, she realized he'd moved to where he was standing just in front of her.

Her eyes locked with his and she opened her mouth to tell him she'd call him the next day, but he caught her off guard as he moved even closer until their faces were just inches apart.

"Oswald… what are you doing?" She questioned, swallowing hard when her voice wouldn't raise over a low whisper.

Gauging her reaction, he dared to inch closer as he leaned forward and rested his hands against the wall on either side of her. Since the moment she'd walked into the club, she'd invaded his every single thought and more than anything he'd been craving to know what her kiss would taste like –how her lips would feel against his own. It was something he'd often thought about over the last few years when he'd watched her grow from a beautiful teenager into a stunning young woman –that he considered to be a work of art.

Oswald wasn't sure if it was all the liquid courage he'd been consuming that night, or if he'd finally grown brave enough to make a move with her –it also boosted his confidence that she hadn't moved or pushed him away from her.  
Maybe it was finally the right time to let her know how he felt.

Bird glanced to the sides as he put his hands on the wall, and slowly she turned her head back until she faced him with an uncertain look on her face. Her eyebrows knotted and though he was still staring into her eyes, he couldn't read what she was thinking.

If she didn't want him to kiss her, then in his mind she should have moved away from him and not just stood there staring at him. He was all too aware that she had a boyfriend and he knew what he was about to do was wrong.

She'd come there in pain and in a susceptible mental state, seeking his _friendship_ –it was wrong, but he selfishly hoped that her vulnerability was strong enough that it had opened the door for him to make a move.

"What are you doing?" She repeated, still unable to get her voice to pick up any volume as she spoke. It was like she was paralyzed so much so that even her voice box wasn't functioning right.

He didn't answer her, just kept his gaze intense as he slowly leaned in farther until his mouth was on hers. His eyes closing in relief and bliss when she moved her lips against his, and as he leaned in closer with his body pressing against hers; he was sure they were defying the laws of gravity and floating somewhere far above their flawed city.

Her shoes fell from her grip and she laid her hands flat against his chest, where it took a moment before she gently applied pressure and pushed him back as she turned her head to the side to break the kiss.

"Stop." She said, her voice slightly cracking as she stared at him.

Grabbing onto his arm that was on the right side of her, she pushed it away and stepped away from where he'd had her trapped against the wall. For a second he thought that she was going to run from the building, until she stopped and stared at him with wide eyes.

"Bird, I…" He started to say, until he realized she was staring past him and slowly he turned around to see Harvey Dent standing there with a look on his face like someone had just ripped his heart from his chest.  
Oswald knew that feeling well, he imagined it was the same expression on his face every time he'd seen Bird with Harvey.

The club remained silent other than the music playing through the speakers.

"Harvey…" Bird choked out, tears stinging her eyes as she saw the broken expression on his face.

Silently, he turned and quickly walked towards the door he now regretted ever walking in through.

"Bird!" Oswald yelled, helplessness and need spilling into his tone and causing his voice to crack as he saw her rushing after Harvey.

Stumbling back over to the bar, he climbed onto a stool and rested his head in his hands. How could a moment of pure heaven turn to hell within a matter of seconds?

"Harvey, wait!" Bird pleaded as she ran out into the street, not even feeling the pain of the broken cement sidewalk and small rocks cutting into the soles of her bare feet as she chased after him.

"That was a mistake, he's just a friend." She said as she caught up to him by his parked car.

When he didn't respond or turn around, she walked around and got in front of him to block him from getting into his car and leaving without her getting a chance to explain.

"I am so sorry." She cried, her voice rushed and breath uneven, as she frantically shook her head back and forth, "I-I don't even know what happened… we've both been drinking and it was stupid and a mistake and normally I would have never done anything like this. I love you-"

"Is this the real reason you didn't want me to see where you worked?" He yelled, cutting her off and in response she backed up against his car. Suddenly enraged and feeling like every single word that left her mouth was nothing short of a complete lie.

"No, of course not!" She yelled back at him, looking hurt from the accusation, but he was sure it couldn't have stung near as bad as what he'd seen when he walked into the club, "Harvey, I can explain-"

"Shut up!" He yelled, as he charged forward and caused her to jump back and slam her back into the side of his car. "I came here to check on you! I know something happened here at the club and you've not been acting like yourself ever since then!"

Her mouth hung open as she stared at him and struggled to find her words, as she watched his face contort into an expression she'd hoped to never see on him again –it strongly resembled the look on his face when he'd snapped and threatened Dick Lovecraft; only somehow it looked worse now since it was directed at her.

"I pushed him back, I told him to stop!" She yelled, trying to get through to him. Though she no longer felt like she was speaking to the same Harvey Dent she'd grown so close too.

"It took you long enough to do so!" He yelled twice as loud so that he could talk over what she was saying.

"I… I was shocked, it took me a minute to react and-"

"How could you do this?" He demanded to know, his face was so close to hers as he screamed that she could feel pinpoint size droplets of his saliva splatter on her face as he got in her face even more, trying to take full control of the confrontation and making her feel like her side of the story was completely worthless and nothing she had to say held any weight with him.

"I'm sorry-"

"Sorry? You're sorry! Well that doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot now, does it? After you screwed up that bad –sorry doesn't cut it!"

"What do you want me to say then? You won't even listen to me!" She shouted, "How did you even know I was here? Did you follow me?"

"I saw your car when I drove by!" He yelled and before either of them realized what was happening, his hands latched onto her upper arms and he forcefully pushed her back against the car and when she gasped in pain and tried to shake him off, he squeezed tighter and held her in place so she couldn't move.

His face was back in hers as he screamed, "Why the hell does it even matter?"

"You're hurting me-"

"I've looked past everything bad that you've told me and then you turn around and do this? It's like you're doing things on purpose to try and hurt me! Doing everything you can to push me away. So what's it going to take, huh? For you to see what's right in front of you!"

"No, Harvey you're really-" She pleaded in a strained voice trying to wriggle free of his unrelenting grip, though at the moment she wasn't sure if his hold on her arms or the car door pressing into her back hurt the worst.

"IF I EVER SEE YOU DO ANYTHING LIKE THIS AGAIN-"

"YOU'LL WHAT?" Bird screamed back as loud as she could, her voice echoing through the street and bouncing back from the brick buildings around them, as she roughly broke free of his iron grip.

Her words had barely gotten out before she was roughly silence with the hard impact of his hand against the already bruised and sore side of her face.

It happened so fast that neither of them had even realized what happened for a few eerily silent seconds as the rest of Gotham City was muted around them.

On shaky legs, Bird stumbled back a few steps and placed her own hand against the still stinging bright red flesh of her cheek. Her eyes glazed over from shock.

Taking a step back from her, Harvey looked down at his hands and when he finally looked back at her face, every last trace of the rage he'd flown into was gone.

It wasn't the monster in him staring back at her anymore –it was her Harvey, looking more wounded than she'd ever seen before.

"Harvey?" She asked in a shaky voice, walking closer but he backed away from her; far more disgusted by his own actions than he was with what she'd done that night. He was in his own state of shock, fully unable to comprehend how things had escalated that fast and if it wasn't for the skin on his hand stinging from the impact, he'd never have believed he'd hit her.

Walking around her, his head was lowered in shame and tears stung at his eyes as he got into his car and sped off –ignoring her as she called after him with her voice broken from emotion.

* * *

 **A/N – So I know this probably goes without saying, but I just feel the need to point out that just because I write something in a story –doesn't mean I condone or support what the characters do.**

 **I actually rewrote that ending scene (** _ **and I'd like to thank my bestie, Miss E Charlotte for encouraging me to stay true to the story I'm trying to tell and not hold back on anything**_ **) I struggled with it so much really, but at the end of the day, I want to say that I told my story the way I wanted without holding anything back for fear of judgment. Though it did break my heart.  
**

 **That all being said, thank you all so much for reading and thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Love. Fiction. 2016, Miss E Charlotte and to** **Saskia D. Fox** **for reviewing the last chapter! :)**

 **So… thoughts? A lot happened this chapter, what did you all think?**


	31. Moonless Midnight

**XXXI**

 _"So much of the language of love was like that: you devoured someone with your eyes, you drank in the sight of him, you swallowed him whole. Love was substance, broken down and beating through your bloodstream." ― Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes_

* * *

Oswald blew out a breath at the extended silence coming from the other end of the call he'd placed to Bird.

He'd just told her that Butch and Fish had shown up at the club to kill him not long after she'd left and Zsasz followed the pair there.

Ultimately, the night had ended with Fish escaping and Butch being recaptured.

"I just wanted to let you know about Fish… she knows you've betrayed her now and she might come after you." Oswald explained.

"Thanks, but I'm not worried about Fish coming after me." Bird quietly replied, before letting the phone fall into silence again.

"I also called because of how we left things between us. You barely spoke two words to me when you came back in for your shoes."

"I couldn't think of anything to say." Bird admitted, rubbing her forehead as she faced out the glass door leading to her balcony.

"Perhaps I should open the dialogue?" He stammered, pulling in a breath before he started to speed talk, "I know you must be very angry with me. What I did was inappropriate and I apologize for any trouble it's caused you-"

"I'm not mad at you." She cut him off, blowing out a heavy breath as she said, "But I can't get into this right now."

"I understand." He quickly said, opening his mouth to offer a suggestion that they meet the following day to talk but he wasn't given the chance as she hung up on him.

"Well, that was amusing… tell me, what did Penguin do?"

Bird closed her eyes at the question, but didn't give a verbal answer.

"So what's next? You're going to finish me off yourself?"

Turning around Bird said, "If you thought for one second I was going to kill you, you'd have never gotten into the car with me."

"True." Fish sighed in defeat and exhaustion as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the young brunette in front of her as she asked, "Why did you help me?"

"Just happened to be in the right place at the right time, I guess." She shrugged. After getting her shoes and leaving the club after her fight with Harvey ended with him driving off, she'd only made it around the side of the building before she shut her car back off and sat there feeling completely immobilized from the events of the night. She felt like she'd been sitting there for at least an hour when she heard several rounds of gunfire, and then she spotted Fish climbing out of a window. "And after everything that happened… I still care about you."

With a bitter tasting breath, her smile appeared to be nearly swallowed up in sadness as Fish said, "The old man was right, it is your favorites that disappoint you the most."

Bird's apartment fell into silence before Fish said, "Penguin told me something interesting earlier tonight… just before I'd planned on bashing his head in with a bat. Told me that this whole time he's been working for Maroni, he's really been spying on him for Falcone. Now that's really got me thinking, about how long you've been playing me."

"A long time." Bird admitted.

"So you're coming back to the club in the first place, all the gifts and the displays of loyalty to me…" She asked, letting her question trail off.

"Orchestrated to earn back your trust." Bird answered, knowing there was no use in lying now.

"Well done." Fish conceded with a dramatic bow to Bird. "You've been working with Penguin this entire time. So what comes next on your climb to the top? Let him do all of the snitching and manipulating –the dirty and dangerous work and then take everything he's worked for right out from under him?"

"No, I wouldn't do that to him." Bird defended.

"Oh, but how easily it could be done… you can try to pretend you don't, but you know very well how he feels about you. You should use it to your advantage."

"He's my best friend-"

"Stupid girl!" Fish hissed, clicking her tongue to the roof of her mouth and pointing an accusing finger at Bird, "I vowed a long time ago to never let a man be over me –to let anyone be over me and I worked damn hard to get as far as I did and I was prepping you to be with me all the way to top. Gotham needs –hell, the world needs strong willed, powerful women in power and all along I thought you had it in you."

Stepping closer to her, Fish continued, "I saw so much drive in you, so much of myself and the stronger you got the more I looked at you and thought, ' _Damn, this girl right here… she's got what it takes_ ', but I see now you've lost it. You're getting weak."

"I am not getting weak." Bird argued, defensively crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at her.

"Baby girl, you played me for a fool. No doubt it about it, you pulled one over on me –bested me at my own game. Well, bravo, good for you –the show must go on and all that jazz… but, the truth is you won. That took skill and it took strength… but stopping to help me tonight, that was weakness."

"I saved your life tonight!" Bird hissed, walking up to her as she yelled, "If I hadn't gotten you out of there Victor Zsasz and his merry little band of leather clad assassins would have dragged you off to god knows where, to do god knows what!"

Fish stared at her and shook her head back forth, it was true and she knew that. It was chipping away at her to know that if they took Butch alive he'd face those same unspeakable horrors.

She watched as Bird disappeared into the kitchen before returning with several boxes of cereal in her arms which she sat down on the coffee table and began pulling the bags of food out and then reaching into the boxes to un-tape stacks of hundreds she'd hidden away.

"You can't be everything, you can't keep playing all sides." Fish said in a softer voice as she walked around the couch and sat down next to Bird. "You want to betray someone and use them for your own gain, that's all well and good –but then you can't turn around and try to save them. Long ago I learned a hard lesson and I know from experience… you're going to get yourself killed if you keep bowing to both the sinner and the saint in you."

Ignoring her, Bird stood and got a zippered bag from the coat closet as she returned to the couch and started to tuck the stacks of cash away in the bag, trying to block what she was being told out of her mind.

It was something she'd been told many times before, coming from people on both sides of the moral line. That she needed to pick a side, but it was easier said than done when she had so many reasons to want to be both the sinner and the saint, both an angel and a devil.

When there was a knock at her door, they both jumped to their feet and Bird pulled the gun from under her coffee table and nodded to her ex-boss to hide.  
Fish quickly made her way across the small room and into Bird's bedroom, where she shut the door behind her and looked towards the window plotting an escape in case it was someone there looking for her.

After looking through the peephole, Bird breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door to let Detective Bullock into her apartment.

Slowly he walked in, eyeing her suspiciously as he passed through the doorway. He knew Bird had worked for Fish for years, but he didn't peg her as the type to go risking her life for her boss –especially after she'd given the orders to have Oswald killed.

Laying the gun down on her coffee table, Bird looked towards her bedroom and said, "It's safe, you can come out now."

Bullock watched as the door slowly opened and Fish walked out into the living room, a smile spreading over her lips as she said, "Harvey?"

"Fish!" He greeted back, looking relieved as he walked forward and wrapped his arms around her. After hearing of her betrayal on Falcone, he'd been sure he'd never see her again.  
She closed her eyes as she held tightly onto him. There weren't many people left she could trust or depend on in Gotham and in truth she wasn't entirely sure of Bird's motives, but thankfully she'd called Harvey Bullock to help and for the first time all night Fish finally felt like she could actually breathe.

Bird watched them with a small smile on her lips and happy she'd made the decision she had to call him. In her years of working for Fish, she'd seen Bullock around the club several times and she'd picked up on the love and bond the pair had for each other –even through all of the rough spots they'd had.

"I really hate to break this up…" Bird said, getting their attention, "But Victor Zsasz is out there prowling the streets searching for Fish right now."

Tucking the last of the money into the bag she zipped it shut and walked over to them, handing it to Fish she said, "There's enough here for you to disappear and start somewhere fresh."

Fish took the bag from her and opened it to try and gauge exactly how much was there, and Harvey admitted, "You know, I had my doubts when you called."

Pulling a box down from a shelf in the closet she dropped it on her desk and opened it up as she said, "Well, I'm glad you showed up when you did. She's not safe here and I'm not safe having her here." Walking back over to Bullock she handed him a gun and a box of ammo as she said, "In case you run into trouble, the clip is full and it's clean –no serial number, no way to track it back to anyone, unlike your service weapon."

Taking the gun and nodding in understanding he guessed, "Falcone's got the whole city on the lookout?"

"I didn't expect anything less." Fish answered with a nod.

Tucking the gun and ammo away in his jacket pocket, Bullock extended a hand to Bird as he conceded, "You're not half-bad, kid."

Cracking a smile, she shook his hand and argued, "I'm no kid and I'm more than half-bad."

Taking his hat off, he gave her a nod of respect before he headed towards the door and Bird turned to face Fish.

"I guess this is goodbye then." Bird said, looking at the woman she'd loved and deeply respected for the last few years.

"I'll be back, Gotham is my home." She admitted.

"Fish, come on. It's not safe here." Bird pointed out.

"I will return." Fish asserted, her voice full of conviction. Taking another glance around the small apartment, she rested her hand on the side of Bird's face and said, "In spite of everything, of all your betrayals… I do still love you and for that I'll give you some information in hopes that you'll wise up."

Bird's eyebrows knotted as she stared back at and Fish as she spoke, "When I come back, I'm going to kill Penguin and anyone else who tries to get in my way. I care for you, Bird… I care for you deeply. But when I come back, if you're caught on the wrong side – I will kill you."

With that, Fish lovingly patted the side of Birds face one last time before she went to meet Harvey at the door and the pair left without looking back.

 **~(The following week)~**

"Finally decided to come around?" Alfred asked as he stepped off the last stair just in time to see Bird walking in through the door.

Letting out a sigh, Bird closed her eyes and shook her head. The last few days had felt like hell on earth –Harvey hadn't tried to reach out to her once and she'd been ignoring Oswald's attempts to talk to her. She had no idea what to even to say to him at this point.

She'd spent the earlier segment of the week locked away in her apartment trying to disconnect from the rest of the world, but her alone time hadn't solved any of her problems and with the sunrise that morning came another call from Alfred saying she needed to come by and see her brother.

"Alfred-" She started to say, but he cut her off as he said, "Lady Wayne, have you any idea how much your brother looks up to you? We both know he's not one for reaching for help, but he's been calling you for days to no avail."

Looking offended by the small lecture she'd just been dealt, Bird scoffed, "Have you any idea what I've been going through this past week?"

"Not in the slightest." He admitted, eyebrows raised as he asked, "Care to share?"

"No, Alfred. I don't want to share my feelings with the class."

"Very well then, I believe you know where to find young Master Bruce."

She watched with disbelief as he spun around and headed back up the stairs. Over the years she'd had her fair share of disagreements with Alfred, but after her parents had died they'd been getting along better than ever. Only now, she felt like a child that had been scolded for doing something they shouldn't –maybe it was something she needed to hear.

Crossing her arms over her chest she turned down the hallway and headed for her late father's office, pushing one of the large double doors open she stepped in and shut it behind her.

"Morning." She greeted, doing her best to smile.

Looking up from the papers he'd been reading, Bruce greeted, "Starling, you're looking well."

"Am I?" She scoffed, "That's surprising considering I feel like hell."

Looking him over she asked, "How are you?"

"The same as you." He quietly admitted looking back down to the papers in his hands.

Bird glanced around the room and started to ask him what was bothering him so bad, but before she got the chance he said, "I'm sorry if I offended you the last time we spoke."

Walking closer to the desk she shook her head, "You didn't-"

"Oh." He said, cutting her off, "I thought maybe that was the reason you stopped coming around."

"I've been dealing with a lot of personal stuff and I know that's not really an excuse, but…" she shrugged as her voice trailed off, "I'm kind of new to this whole trying to be a good big sister thing."

Walking around and sitting up on the desk next to where he was sitting in the chair, she looking at him, "I'm here now though… so you can tell me what's going on."

He stared down to the papers for several seconds, during which the mood in the room seemed to shift until he finally said, "Selina was lying. She didn't see the man who killed mom and dad. She saw making up this story as a means to staying out of the juvenile detention center."

"Her story, the sketch we looked at… all of it, it was all a lie." He said in a much softer, weak sounding voice.

"I had my doubts about her story." Bird softly nodded, and her brother sighed heavily as he explained, "Yes, but I believed her. I thought she was my friend."

Bird watched him with a frown on her lips, even with all the pain she was in herself –she'd have given anything to be able to take his pain so he wasn't hurting anymore. He'd been through so much so young and she knew what it was like to barely have any friends at his age and it made the world a darker place.

"I think she really does care about you –even in spite of the lies she told." Bird finally said, but her younger brother wouldn't even look at her as he said through gritted teeth, "What she did was cruel."

"I'm not denying that." She quickly asserted, placing a hand on his arm to get his attention, she waited until he looked at her before continuing, "It sounds like she lied out of desperation, Bruce."

"That doesn't make it right." He sternly argued, his eyes narrowed as he spoke.

"No, it doesn't and I'm not defending what she did –it was nothing short of cruel." Bird looked at her little brother as she reasoned, "But that day you spent out on the streets with her, you thought it was an adventure. I doubt you'd have felt that way if you didn't have a safe house and warm bed to come home too when it was all over. You see, what seemed like a fun break from everything here, is her life that she doesn't get to take a break from. Selina has no family, no real place to call home –remember that fence you guys went to sell your belongings for money? That's not a game to her she has to use fences to get money to live off of. She doesn't have heat to keep her warm in the winter or air conditioning to escape the heat of the summer –she never knows where her next meal is going to come from."

His sister's words slowly sank in and he looked down to the desk when he felt tears stinging at his eyes. He'd known Selina had a rough life on the streets, but hearing it laid out in more precise detail was an eye opening experience he hadn't planned on receiving that day.

Bruce knew his older sister had faced many hardships in her life, but he couldn't help but feel envious of her knowledge of the world outside of Wayne Manor walls and her ability to lay things out for him to change his perspective on a situation.  
When he'd had his fight with Selina the week before, if he'd known then what he knew now, he was sure he'd have handled the situation differently. Now, he was feeling like he might never see her again.

He had no real way to track her down and with the way they'd left things, he doubted she'd be making anymore impromptu visits.

"I can see the whole picture much more clearly now." He admitted, looking up to her as he sincerely added, "Thank you."

"You're welcome, little brother." Bird replied with a smile, but he knew her well to enough to know the smile was only for his benefit and it wasn't a true expression.

"You said you'd been dealing with some personal matters?" He recalled, "What happened?"

"Hey…" She breathed, reaching out a hand and ruffling up his neatly combed hair as she teased, "What do you think you're doing? There's only room for one sibling to listen and fix things around here, and I'm the oldest so naturally that role goes to me."

Smacking her hand away from his hair, he sighed as he patted it back down and looked up to where she was sitting as he said, "You know I despise when you do that."

"I know." She beamed, before sliding off the desk and going over to one of the leather couches to take a seat.

Following her, he sat on the opposite couch and his expression was serious when he said, "Starling, I'm serious… maybe I can help you with what's on your mind."

"You can't." She assured him.

"Okay… then maybe you'll feel better talking it through." He offered with a small shrug.

Bird lowered her head and pulled in a breath, "A little while ago there was an… accident, and I lost one of my friends."

His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at her, his first instinct was to say he was sorry for her loss, but after being on the receiving end of that line nothing short of a million times he knew the words were about as empty as they could be.

"I've been in a low place since then, not really thinking straight and I messed up my relationship with Harvey, I screwed things up really bad." Bird admitted, barely going into detail over everything that had happened, "And in return he did something wrong too and screwed things up even worse and now… I don't know, we haven't talked since then and I have no idea where we stand anymore."

Looking a little confused by the mess he'd just been dealt, Bruce asked, "Well, what did you do that was so bad?"

Cracking a smile, she said, "I'm not going to tell you. All I'll say is that I never meant for it to happen."

Clearly not happy that she wasn't giving him the whole story, he pulled in a breath and asked, "What did Harvey do?"

"Something that I don't think he meant to do either." She replied.

His face scrunched and his forehead lined as he questioned, "Why won't you tell me? I can't help you if I don't have all the details."

"You can't help me anyways… and it's adult stuff." She argued with him, "I don't even know if things can be helped now… I'm not entirely sure we can fix what we've broken."

Bruce was silent as he watched his sister, he could tell that whatever she was going through was causing her a lot of pain.

"Most broken things can be repaired." He simply stated.

They both looked up to the doors when Alfred opened them and announced, "Detective James Gordon is here to see you Master Bruce."

"Detective." Bruce greeted as he stood from the couch.

"Bruce, how are you?" He asked with a smile as he extended his hand, which Bruce finally accepted with a feather light shake as he sighed, "I'm fine thank you."

Bird's eyebrows raised as she looked between them, she'd never seen her brother acting towards Jim that way before.

The smile fell from his face and he took a breath as he explained, "I would have come by earlier, but things were a little crazy and you were gone for a while."

"Switzerland." Bruce explained.

"Probably wise." Jim said, his eyes cutting to Bird before focusing back on her brother, "I saw Selina Kyle, she told me she lied… that she saw nothing."

"Yes, that's what she told me. She made up the story to stay out of a detention center."

"Well, she could just be saying this now because she's scared. It would be understandable after what happened." Jim tried to smooth the situation, but Bruce wasn't having any part of it as he said, "No, she doesn't scare easily. I believe her, she didn't see the killer.

"Look this is unfortunate-" Jim started to say, but Bird cut him off as she breathed, "Lets be fair Jim, I think it's a little more than unfortunate."

"It doesn't mean we're back at square one." He argued, "Someone sent assassins after her, only a guilty person would do that."

"Yes…" Alfred breathed adjusting his cufflinks as he walked further into the room and reminded him, "Yes, sent the bloody assassins to the manor… thank you very much."

Jim looked between Alfred and Bird before he turned back to Bruce when the young Wayne said, "Either way, you need not concern yourself with the case."

"Bruce, this isn't the time to give up." He argued in disbelief at the young teenager.

"I'm not giving up."

"I don't understand…"

"Months ago you promised you'd find who killed my parents and in all that time you've managed to find one witness who turned out to be a liar." Bruce reasoned.

"An investigation like this takes time-" Jim tried to explain.

"I understand." Bruce said, cutting his sentence short. "But I don't want you to feel bound by an oath that you can't fulfil –I'm releasing you from your promise." Standing up he stated, "I'll pursue the matter on my own."  
With that, he walked past Alfred out of the room before Jim had a chance to respond.

"Bruce!" Jim called, starting to follow him out in the rest of the house, but Bird jumped up from where she'd been sitting and Alfred stood in the detectives way as he said, "Yeah, no… I really wouldn't bother actually, mate. Once Master Bruce makes up his mind, there's no arguing with him."

"He cannot pursue this case on his own, it's too dangerous." Jim said.

"Then I'll have to look after him." Alfred said and Bird nodded, "Bruce won't be on his own."

"That might instill more confidence if your face was a constant fixture around here, Lady Wayne." Alfred said, turning his gaze to her.

Rolling her eyes at the comment, she turned and walked past him out of the doors that her brother had left through moments prior. As she walked away she heard Alfred talking to Jim as he offered, "Shall I show you to the door?"

 **~(Days later)~**

Pulling the sliding door open to an old warehouse on the docks, Bird walked inside and cautiously looked around. Her eyes landing on Oswald sitting by himself at an end of a large metal table, the only light in the room aside from the sunlight from the open door was an old exposed bulb fixture hanging above the center of the table.

"Hello Bird." He greeted, still sitting perfectly still in place as he watched her intently. From the shadows of the room his blue eyes looked dark as night.

"Oswald." She greeted back, lingering close to the door as she asked, "Why are we meeting all the way out here?"

"I had some business to attend to at the dock." He explained before motioning with his hand, "I'm so glad you called. Please, have a seat."

Reaching behind her, Bird slid the large metal door shut and crossed the cement floor until she took a seat at the opposite end of the table from him, on an old metal chair that through her clothes felt like it had been crafted from ice.

He kept his eyes on her, never once looking away.

"You wanted to talk?" He finally asked when she remained silent.

"Not really." Bird admitted, with a weak half smile as she stared back at him in the harsh lighting from the lightbulb above them, "But I think it's necessary… though I'm not really a fan of having adult conversations."

"I knew you were angry with me." He stated, the calm look on his face giving way to one falling somewhere in the spectrum between resentment and pain.

"I'm not." She argued, "Oswald, I told you on the phone that I wasn't mad at you."

"Yes, the last time we spoke –which was over a week ago, if I may add." He countered.

With a sigh, she stood up and grabbed onto the back of the chair, letting it scrape against the floor as she pulled it around the side of the table and over to where he was sitting and sat down near him.

"The whole night is kind of a blur. We both had too much to drink and things took a turn." She excused with a shrug, "This sort of thing happens a lot."

"Does it?" He quietly asked, maintaining eye contact with her even though he felt more like hiding under the table.

"I don't know." She scoffed, resting her elbows on the tale and rubbing her forehead as she breathed, "But thinking it's true makes me feel better… I don't really know what to say in this situation."

Her eyebrows knotted as she stared at him and whispered, "What happened?"

"We shared a kiss." He whispered back, with an almost stunned expression on his face –like he couldn't believe it had truly happened.

"No, you kissed me." She quickly argued, watching as his head lowered and his gaze fell to the dusty and rust coated top of the table.

Unable to take the silence for a second longer he asked, "Am I to assume that things are over between you and Harvey Dent?"

"I don't know… I haven't spoken to him since that night either." She admitted, "I needed to see you first, I needed to ask you something."

When he didn't respond, or even look up at her, Bird's voice softened as she asked him, "Over these last several months, we've gotten into more fights than over the course of our entire friendship and along the way I kept thinking it was because we'd both been under so much pressure and the entire dynamic of our lives changed… but then I started thinking that all of the tension also started around the time I met Harvey."

"I don't much care for him." Oswald mumbled, his eyes fixated on an oddly shaped rusted spot on the surface of the table. "But that's beside the point –as you said we've both been stressed and under immense pressure."

"So that's it? There's no other reason why you've been so quick to anger with me?"

"None that I can recall."

"So…" She breathed, leaning her head down and trying to get him to look at her.

"Yes?" Oswald questioned, raising his head and looking her in the eyes as he spoke.

"So then what happened at the club was just an error in judgement? It was just a result of that bottle of champagne you downed and there was no other reason behind it?" She pushed.

In a rare moment of bravery, he swallowed hard and questioned, "What if it wasn't an error?"

"What are you saying?" She asked, her eyes wide as she spoke.

Catching the glint of fear in their brown hues, Oswald broke eye contact as he replied, "What would you like me to say?"

"That you messed up, Oswald. You really screwed things up for me when it comes to Harvey and I really, really care about him. I want you to tell me that it was a stupid mistake that you deeply regret and that if your blood hadn't turned to alcohol than you'd never have done it. What I want is for you to tell me that we're still friends and that –that night doesn't change anything between us and we're the same as we've always been." She said, her voice raising and cracking from what sounded like panic as she stared at him with pleading, widened eyes.

His eyes dipped down to her lips as her mouth hung open, waiting for him to say something –but all he could think about was how it felt to touch heaven when he'd kissed her. How so many of his dreams started to come true in those brief moments he'd spend with her and how he'd saw his right arm off with a dull blade to get that feeling back.

"I just need you to be honest with me." She added with a shrug, "Even if it's admitting that you like me as more than a friend. We can work through it because this stuff happens. We've been so close for going on five years that it would make sense –two people so closely bonded are bound to confuse friendship for something more at different times. But it passes as fast as it surfaces and it's not a big deal."

He stared back at her, thinking of a response to what she was saying. He felt like she was giving him a script of things to say that she wanted to hear and that would make her feel better.

Still, she had asked for honesty and for a moment he considered how to answer her with full disclosure. Tell her that it wasn't a mistake, that he didn't regret it for a minute and that he loved her more than life itself and the idea of another man's hands on her made all the food sour in his stomach. Harvey Dent wasn't deserving of her, of that he was sure, there was no way anyone could love her the way he loved her.

But much like his mind, his love was dark and he was well aware the possessiveness he felt towards her and the way he'd spend hours locked inside his head thinking of nothing but her wasn't normal or rational.

He didn't just want to be with her in every sense of the word; he wanted to own her. Somewhere deep inside of the darkest places of his heart and mind, he wanted her broken and her soul bleeding with nowhere to run and no one to turn to but him.

Even to himself he couldn't deny that what he wanted and how he wanted her was sick –it was twisted, but no matter how hard he tried to stop those feelings… he just couldn't and the more time went on the deeper the need would grow.

It seemed impossible to worship Bird for all that she was –all the while, fighting an ever- budding desire to break her.

"Oswald?" Bird asked, watching him with raised eyebrows as she could have sworn his eyes were growing darker by the second.

Abruptly, his head turned in her direction and he smiled as he said, "There's no need for concern on the matter." Waving a dismissive hand he added, "I see you as nothing but my dearest and closet friend –nothing would change that."

Smiling back at him she nodded in agreement as she reached out and gave his cold, trembling hand a squeeze and stood up, "I thought so, I just needed to hear it straight from you."

"I'm so glad we could sort this out, Bird." He said as he also stood from his seat and his smile grew, but the friendliness behind the expression seemed to be fading.

"Me too." She breathed nodding, "I feel a lot better."

"As I do I!" He yelled, his voice much too loud for the enclosed space and proximity in which they were standing –his tone of voice no longer matched the smile on his face.

Bird gave him a confused look as she paused to look at him before turning and walking towards the door.

Just as she opened it and let the musty room be filled with warm sunlight again, Oswald called out, "Bird, just out of curiosity… that little speech you made about two people being so closely bonded as we are, falling for the other at varying times. Are you speaking from your own personal experience on the matter?"

"What?" She asked with a laugh as she turned back to watch him as he remained next to the table, "Oswald, we just determined-"

"Despite your wish to put the blame solely on me, let's not forget that there was a moment before you pushed me away when you, in fact, willingly kissed me back." Oswald accused, cutting her off mid-sentence before a wide smile spread over his lips that caused the muscles in his cheeks to turn into sharp points, he said, "Have a nice day, Bird."

* * *

 **A/N - Thanks for reading!**

 **Ahh, guys I am so excited now that season 3 of Gotham is airing! ^_^**

 **As always you can find me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent).**

 **I owe a huge thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Love. Fiction. 2016, Miss E Charlotte and Guest for their reviews.**


	32. Revelations

**XXXII**

 _"Love is a dangerous angel." ― Francesca Lia Block,_ _Weetzie Bat_

* * *

Bird stared down into her mixed drink, absentmindedly stirring the cocktail with the stirrer and trying her best not to look around the bar she'd been in for several minutes.

She'd already turned down several offers from sloppy drunk business men who were all there blowing off steam after a long day in the office, who wanted to buy her a drink.

Internally she groaned when she felt someone slide onto the stool next to her.

"I thought that was you… but you were blurry from across the room."

Hearing the familiar voice she looked to the side to see the person who'd approached her was an already intoxicated Barbara Kean.

"Hey…" Bird breathed a little surprised that the blonde wanted anything to do with her after their initial meeting.

A few moments of silence passed and Bird turned her attention back to her drink, until Barbara said, "Some town we live in, a girl can't even have a drink without being harassed." Barely able to balance her arm on the edge of the bar she rubbed her forehead and mumbled, "I'm here to forget about my problems, not pick up a new one."

"Amen." Bird breathed, clinking her glass against Barbara's before she drank down the rest of the contents.

"I… I don't think I ever thanked you for… for killing that man and saving my life." She slurred.

Bird looked around to make sure no one was listening to them, before she looked back to her with raised eyebrows and asked, "How much have you had to drink?"

"A few…" She dismissed with a wave of the hand, before she looked to Bird and asked, "Have you seen Jim recently?"

"Mhmm…"

"How does he look?" Barbara questioned and suddenly Bird would have rather went back to fighting the drunk guys off. She had a mess of her own problems and she couldn't even begin to care about someone else's.

"His hair has grown out some, I guess." Bird shrugged, as she motioned to the bartender for another drink and Barbara let out a loud laugh, jabbing a finger into Bird's sore upper arm as she said, "You're funny."

"And you're so pretty…" Barbara continued, her voice starting to crack as she continued, "And I… I love that dress, you're just so put together and I'm a mess."

Bird stared at her as tears started to flow from the blonde's blue eyes and down her cheeks.

"Oh god." Bird breathed rubbing her own forehead as she asked, "Can you please not do that, I don't like sad drunks –it's just depressing and I'm kind of going through my own stuff right now-"

"I'm sorry!" She cried, wiping her cheeks and slurring her words, "He just made me feel put together, you know? Alone I don't do well on my own, but then I met Jim and I was finally an entire person."

Desperately slapping the continuing line of tears from her cheeks, she started to choke on her breath as she sputtered, "He made me feel."

Gladly accepting the napkin Bird held out to her, Barbara added, "Only now everything hurts."

"Oh my god, you are a mess." Bird observed staring at her, and Barbara frantically nodded in agreement. Shaking her head Bird thought out loud, "It's like looking in a blonde mirror."

It took Barbara a few times of tipping her glass to her lips before she realized her glass was empty and she flagged the bartender down for a refill, Bird quickly held her hand up and shook her head back and forth signaling for the order to be cancelled.

"Look, I've only had a few drinks, do you want me to drive you home?" Bird offered.

"What home?" She scoffed, "I called my own apartment yesterday and someone answered the phone and it was… uh, well it wasn't Jim. I don't have anywhere to go." She added with tears starting to well back up in her eyes.

The only soft place she'd had to fall after leaving had been her ex-girlfriend Renee Montoya, but after seeing how Barbara was still so wrapped up in drinking and drugs she'd put to a stop to their rekindling romance to save herself and all the work she'd put in to get clean and sober.

The split had been a bad one all over again and left Barbara feeling like she was just too much for anyone to handle –or that no one actually cared enough to even try. She felt like a broken heart on two legs with nowhere to go and get out of the rain.

"Do you want me to take you to a hotel?" Bird questioned, knowing if she left Barbara alone to fend for herself at the bar in her intoxicated state that she'd feel guilty if something happened to her –and she already had enough weighing on her conscience as it was.

"I can't… I don't even have my purse." Barbara admitted in an unsteady voice.

After leaving Montoya's place, she'd been in such a distressed state that she was lucky to even gather up her clothes –let alone spend time searching for her purse.

"Well…" Bird sighed, "I guess you can crash on my couch until you figure something out? Or I could call Jim for you?"

"Don't call Jim." She pleaded, "I can't let him see me like this." Remembering what Montoya had told her Barbara breathed, "I'm just toxic."

 **~(Hours later)~**

"I think you might be my new best friend." Barbara said with droopy eyes and a sleepy smile as she grabbed a handful of chocolate covered pretzels out of the bag in front of her and looked to Bird was who was busy swiping apple chips through a jar of crunchy peanut butter as the pair sat on Bird's living room floor where the couch normally was, surrounded by a large pile of open junk food.

"Right!" Bird agreed with a laugh as she swallowed her latest bite of food and washed it down with a drink from the open two-liter bottle of root beer they were sharing, "Who knew we had so much in common?"

After they'd gotten back to Birds apartment much earlier that night, they ended up getting into Bird's marijuana stash and continued drinking, which turned into them moving the couch and coffee table out of the middle of the room and turning up the stereo to an obnoxious level as they twirled and danced the night away, a therapy in it's own right that let them just enjoy the escape from reality –though the high had pretty much worn off for the both of them now and neither of them could remember ever being so hungry in their lives.

Picking up the bottle of root beer, Barbara looked to bird as she said, "You've listened to me talk about Jim all night, it's your turn to fess up."

"About what?" Bird asked, as she took the last of the chocolate covered pretzels and tossed the empty bag to the side.

"I'm a girl, I have a sixth sense about these things." She said eyeing Bird and letting her know she knew that she was up to her neck in her own relationship woes.

"Boyfriend… girlfriend?" Barbara pushed, trying to get her to open up, if for no other reason than to dwell on someone's heartache beside her own.

"Boyfriend." Bird answered, a half-smile on her lips as she added, "Though I'm beginning to think dating girls would be far less complicated."

"Not true." Barbara argued, "Did you not hear a word I said about Renee?"

"Oh, I heard." Bird nodded, "I didn't know Montoya used to be just as screwed up as we are, makes me see her in a different light."

Searching the empty wrappers on the floor around her, Barbara asked, "What's his name? Do I know him?"

Taking another drink, Bird let out a sigh of defeat as she said, "His name is Harvey Dent."

"Sounds kinda familiar." She shrugged, as she tore open the plastic bag containing gummy worm candy.

"He's a lawyer… works with the District Attorney's office." Bird explained, blowing out a heavy sigh as she explained, "He's tall and handsome, smart and funny, he wants to make a difference; make the city better. He's kind and patient-"

"I sense a flaw coming up." Barbara cut in.

Nodding Bird said, "Yeah, he's got this… darkness in him, I guess." With a shrug she explained, "He's got trouble controlling his anger –he goes straight from zero to sixty in a split second and then back again. It's kind of scary to see actually."

Tilting her head to the side Barbara said, "Jim has a darkness in him too."

Shaking her head and trying to get rid of her thoughts of him, she added, "Anyways… you do too. I've seen you do some scary things too."

"It's different."

"How so?"

"Because…" Bird breathed, looking down to the floor as she spoke, "I'm not denying I've done some bad things in my life, but no matter how mad he made me… I wouldn't hurt him."

Readjusting on the hardwood floor Barbara asked, "He hurt you?"

"He sort of grabbed me and pushed me against a car during a fight and then…" Bird admitted, her eyes closing as she spoke, and she reached up holding onto her still sore and slightly bruised upper arms.

"Has he ever hit you?" The blonde questioned.

"Once." Bird replied, looking at the expression on her face before she asked, "During that same fight." Seeing the expression on her newest friend's face, Bird asked, "Why? Did Jim ever hit you?"

"No." Barbara quickly answered, an almost wild look taking over her blue eyes as she thought out loud, "Sometimes, during our worst fights, I'd keep pushing him, you know? Hitting all the right buttons and trying to see just how mad I could get him. I think a few times I actually wanted him to take a swing at me."

"Why?" Bird gasped, looking at her like she had at least three heads.

"Just to feel something, I guess… to feel something that intense." Barbara shrugged, her eyes falling to the floor when she saw how she was being looked at for her admission.

"What were you fighting about when he hurt you?" Barbara asked, steering the conversation away from her own perversions.

"I was at a party with my friend, and Harvey showed up just in time to see my friend kiss me. I told him to stop and pushed him back, but obviously the damage was already done at that point."

Barbara's eyes widened, still bright with the wild look they'd taken on earlier in the conversation, "He reacted so strongly out of love… out of passion!"

"He grabbed my arms and-"

"Out of passion!"

"Are you still high?" Bird questioned with her face contorted in a look of disbelief.

"Come on… you strike me as the type of girl who likes to flirt with danger. Plus, aren't all the best men a little scary and all the best loves dangerous at their core?" Barbara asked, the excited look in her eyes fading as she suddenly appeared bored with the conversation and waved a dismissive hand in front of her as she admitted, "Of course, if you're wanting healthy relationship advice you should probably be asking someone else."

With a laugh, Bird pointed out, "Right now you are kind of all I've got."

"Okay." Barbara laughed, before she asked, "Are you scared of him?"

Without hesitation or needing to give it much thought she shook her head back and forth, "No."

"What about the idea of living a life without him in it?" Barbara questioned with raised eyebrows.

"Terrifying." Bird admitted, her voice barely over a whisper as she answered the questioned. Clearing her throat she said, "But the thing is I hurt him too when he saw that kiss and I don't even know how to face him now."

"You'll have to sooner or later." Barbara reasoned, "I made a mistake taking off and leaving things the way I did with Jim, but I'll get him back. I just need a little time to pull myself together."

"Mi casa es su casa." Bird said as she motioned to the room around them, before her attention was pulled to the windows where she saw the sun was starting to rise.

 **~(A few days later)~**

Looking up to Harvey's stunned expression, Bird innocently held up the spare key to his apartment and shrugged, "I told you that was a terrible hiding place, it's the first spot someone would look."

Walking over he took the key from her and countered, "And I recall saying if someone wants to get in here bad enough, they'll find a way."

"You wouldn't answer your door and when I went by your office today they said you'd been out all week." She explained, her brows furrowing as she looked at him. His normally perfectly styled hair had clearly not been combed and his usually clean shaven face was shadowed with dark stubble.

"I took some time off." He shrugged, turning away from her and crossing the room as he looked out of one of the large windows and asked, "Why are you even here?"

"I thought we should talk." Bird admitted, feeling exposed like she was naked with a spot light shining down on her as she added, "I can't stand this… you not answering the phone or even coming to the door when I know you're home."

"Yeah?" He breathed, crossing his arms over his chest and continuing to stare out the window as he admitted, "I've barely even slept since… since that night."

As she walked further into his apartment she saw his coffee table was littered with beer cans and there were a few pizza delivery boxes sitting on the floor.

"It doesn't look like you've left your apartment either." She commented.

"Because I haven't." Harvey admitted, shaking his head as he mumbled, "You should just go."

Her breathing grew uneven, all the way to his building she'd tried to convince herself that things would be okay between them; that somehow they could find a way to move past this just like they'd survived everything other storm together, but now she wasn't so sure. He would barely talk to her.

"Harvey, I know you're upset with me, but-"

"Upset?" He scoffed, "No, I'm mad at you for what you did, but I hate myself for what I did to you. I swore I'd never hurt you and then…" Pulling in a ragged breath he admitted, "Every single time I close my eyes all I can see is the look on your face when I snapped and hurt you."

"And every time I close mine all I can see is how broken you looked that night." She explained, "I need to explain to you what happened, I know what you think you saw, but it was a mistake."

"I know what happened." Harvey argued, glancing over his shoulder he added, "I saw you kissing someone else… Oswald Cobblepot, of all people."

"Oswald is my best friend, has been for years." Bird admitted, stepping closer to where he was standing as she spoke. "He was throwing a party for his mother and I'd spent the night drinking and I swear he drank an entire bottle of champagne on his own. It was a mistake, Harvey. It happened so fast and once my mind caught up to what was happening, I pushed him away."

"And here I thought we'd gotten everything out in the open." He remarked, but his voice didn't have any fight left in it. He was too beaten down.

"We do!" She defended, "I didn't think I needed to hand over a list of my friends."

"Friends are fine… but clearly he doesn't view what you have as friendship."

"He does to, I talked to him a few days ago to straighten things out. We're just friends and he admitted it was a stupid, alcohol fueled mistake." Bird said.

Harvey let out a groan as he hung his head and retorted, "I don't care. What he says means nothing, not after what I saw."

Bird's eyes closed as she sighed and admitted, "I'm here because I want to fix this; fix us."

"What if I said I don't want you around him?" Harvey asked, still starring out of his window.

"Then I'd tell you that no one tells me who I can and can't spend time with and that he is my _best friend_ , he means a lot to me." Bird argued, her forehead lining as she spoke.

"I saw the way he looks at you, Starling. Maybe your case of it being a drunk mistake is true, but not on his end of it." Harvey's hands clenched down at his side as he said, "I think he's in love with you."

"That's ridiculous." She complained, rolling her eyes and staring up to the ceiling.

"I mean, how could he not be… you're –you." Harvey finished, as he finally turned back to face her, with an overwhelmed look on his face. "Either way, even if he is your friend than he had to have known how upset you were over the loss of your friend and that you've been in a vulnerable place because of it. It doesn't matter what color you want to paint it –he chose to make a move because you were in a bad place. It was a manipulation, he took advantage of you."

"You don't get it." Bird complained, her gaze dropping to the floor as she thought of the complicated bond she shared with Oswald. One that not many other people could understand.  
Feelings are messy and complicated and even if he had felt something when he went to kiss her, they'd already discussed it and she was choosing to believe it was over and they were back to normal.

"No… you don't get it." He argued with her, his arms hanging limp at his sides as he spoke, with a weak shrug he added, "It doesn't matter anyways."

Despite her best efforts not to break down, tears welled up in her eyes as she choked out, "How can you say it doesn't matter. It matters to me." Motioning between them she continued in a broken voice, "What we have matters to me and I love you –you know how much I love you."

Her words burnt when they reached his ears, she mattered to him too. More than she could possibly understand.

"I love you." He assured her, "I love you more than you know, more than I've ever loved anyone or anything, but somehow I still managed to fly into a rage and I don't even know what happened. One minute we were arguing and the next I had a hold of you, it wasn't a conscious decision –it just happened and you felt so small and breakable in my hands…"

Harvey's voice trailed off and he shrugged, clearly haunted by the memories reaching back much further than the night they were talking –fears stemming back from his childhood as he added, "It takes a different kind of animal to hurt something that you love."

"This is about your dad, isn't it?" She quietly asked, wanting to move closer to him, but she had the feeling he'd move away from her if she tried.

"My worst fear was to be anything at all like him and now, just look at what I've done." He answered with a nod.

"You made a mistake that night too..." She said, seeing the pain in his eyes as he stared at her.

"Don't defend what I did." He was quick to dismiss her words.

"I'm not." She admitted, "I'm just saying that we're not perfect, Harvey. You start to peel back the layers and we're both pretty screwed up –most days we manage to function in-spite of it and some nights… not so much."

Taking a few slow steps towards her, he pointed out what he said earlier, "It wasn't a conscious decision and that terrifies the hell out of me, because if I can't control it then how can I promise it won't ever happen again?"

"I guess you can't." Bird conceded, thinking back to her conversation with Barbara as she added, "I have a friend who would call that passion."

His face contorted as he retorted, "Your friend sounds unstable."

"I think she is." Bird agreed, stepping closer as she spoke. "But if you want to get all hung up on conscious decisions… I made one coming here today."

Her eyes locked with his and Bird said, "You asked me to trust you before, and I still do. I don't know about you, but I think we've weathered some pretty bad storms than this, but if you need time or want me to leave-"

"No." He quickly answered, walking towards her as he took her face in his hands and tilted until she was looking up at him he admitted, "I don't want you to leave –I want you with me, always."

His words earned a small smile from her and she started to lean up to kiss him, but he stopped her as he said, "I'm sorry, for everything. I know it doesn't undo anything, but I am so sorry."

"I know." She nodded as their eyes met and she said, "I'm sorry for everything too."

Leaning down, he pressed a passionate kiss to her lips and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against him as he internally swore that he'd never do anything to hurt her again.

As she pulled back from the kiss, Bird gave him a soft smile and he pulled her closer to him, holding her tightly in an embrace. She laid her head against Harvey's chest and clutched onto him as she stared out into his messy and trash littered living room –which was completely opposite of how neat he usually kept his entire apartment.

She'd been a mess since the night they'd fought and it was clear to see he hadn't been doing so well on his own either.

Maybe, she thought, maybe their relationship wasn't the healthiest one to ever exist in the world, but healthy or not –it was theirs and the longer she stood wrapped in his arms the more she felt like being with him was where she truly belonged.

Barbara's words rang true in her head as she thought maybe the blonde had a point –maybe all of the best loves were a little dangerous and scary.

Harvey loved her despite all of her faults and all the lies she'd told and in return she whole-heartedly loved him back, loved all of him –even the darkest parts.

 **~()~**

"Barbara?" Bird said as she shook the woman who'd been sleeping on her couch for the last few days, and had barely moved the entire day. "Have you even been up today?"

"No." She groggily answered readjusting her head against the pillow and tugging the blanket up closer to her neck. Slowly she opened her eyes, squinting in the lighting as she asked in a weak voice, "Am I in your way?"

"No." Bird assured her, pausing for a moment before she questioned, "Did you ever find your purse?"

"I'll call Renee tomorrow and see if she's come across it."

"Okay…" Bird breathed, looking around her living room before she suggested, "Maybe you should get up for a while… you hungry?"

"I don't feel like getting up." She answered, laying her head back against the pillow and closing her eyes. She'd been having a particularly hard day dealing with her feelings and even the idea of getting off the couch to walk to the bathroom felt like an impossible feat.

"Alright, well… I think I'm going to go see Harvey." Bird announced as she stood up and walked over to the chair her own purse was sitting on as she said, "I'll leave some money on the coffee table in case you want to order some food or something."

"Thank you." Barbara softly said, her voice cracking as she spoke.  
She'd spent the last of the cash she'd had on her at the bar the night she'd ran into Bird and had since been relying on her for everything.

Bird pulled a couple twenties from her wallet and laid them down on the coffee table, tucked partially under one of the television remotes so the breeze from the open windows wouldn't blow the cash away.

Her eyes quickly cut to the door when she heard rapid and frantic knocking, followed by hearing Oswald cry out, "Bird!"

Her purse fell from her hands and the contents spilled out against the floor as she darted over to the door and opened it.

"Oh! Oh, Bird… thank heavens you're home." He stammered, rushing past her inside of her apartment as he continued, "You won't even believe…" His voice trailed off as he saw a blonde female lying on his friends couch with her back to them.

"Who is that?" He stuttered out pointing a finger, and in his still frantic state unable to stand still.

"Barbara Kean." Bird admitted, looking him over and seeing his torn suit and complete state of chaos in his appearance.

"Why on earth is Jim Gordon's girlfriend sleeping in your living room?" He stuttered, slightly shuffling his feet in place and struggling to catch his breath.

"I have a weakness for pretty broken things." Bird shrugged, as she reached out and pulled a leaf from his hair as she asked, "What happened to you?"

"I was nearly killed!" He exclaimed and in his outburst he stomped his foot against the floor and immediately regretted it when it sent a sharp pain through his knee all the way up to his hip. With a grimace he complained, "I nearly met my fate and you've been off making new friends."

As he pulled in a deep breath, he realized just how strongly her apartment smelled of marijuana. More so than ever before, he thought to himself as he looked from where Bird was standing to where Barbara was still facing away from them on the couch.

"Oswald, focus!" Bird ordered, rubbing her forehead as she asked, "Who tried to kill you?"

Hearing the hint of irritation in her tone, his hands trembled at his sides and she watched as his face contorted into a childlike scowl when he stared at her.

"Come on." She said, reaching and grabbing onto his sleeve as she pulled him through her living room and switched the television on she passed it on her way to her bedroom.  
Once they were inside she pulled her door shut behind them and turned to face him as she scanned him over, noting that aside from a few scrapes and bruises he didn't appear to be injured.

"Maroni." He finally answered her question from earlier. "Fish Mooney called him and told him how I've been working for Falcone this whole time." Closing his eyes he shook his head and muttered, "That bitch."

Bird's eyes widened realizing in her helping Fish Mooney escape she'd nearly gotten her best friend killed.

"Are you okay?" She asked, internally face-palming as the words left her lips. Of course he wasn't alright after what had happened.

"I was almost crushed to death inside a car –in a cruel, metal crushing torture contraption!" He pointed out, shaking his head as his voice lowered and he added, "I barely escaped in one piece."

"Take a breath and try to calm down… the important thing is that you lived. With as much as you've done for Falcone, he will have no other choice than to let it publicly be known that you're with him now. Maroni can't touch you if you're under Falcone's protection." Bird pointed out as she put her hands on his shoulders to try and hold him still as she pointed out, "This might actually be a good thing –big picture and all that, remember?"

Slowly he nodded, glancing from side-to-side where her hands still laid on his shoulders as he pulled in a deep breath and looked to her face, their eyes locking as he said, "Come, we must see Falcone immediately."

"I can drop you off there if that's what you'd like." Bird offered, dropping her arms back to her sides and taking a step back away from him.

"We are in this together–" Oswald started to protest, but Bird shook her head and silenced him, "I haven't heard anything from Falcone since everything went down with Liza and I'm not looking to draw attention to myself, okay?"

"Bird?" Oswald asked, walking closer until he stopped just in front of her and said, "We still have a long road ahead of us until Gotham is ours."

When she avoided his eyes he felt his heart starting to beat rapidly inside of his chest and his body trembled as he stuttered out, "You're s-still in this with me, r-right?"

"I thought I was." She answered, her voice just above a defeated whisper, "At times I still think I am, and other moments I'm not sure why I ever wanted to climb to the top of organized crime in the first place."

"Because it's ours!" He exclaimed, "All of Gotham will be ours! This… this is the plan, Bird. Everything we've worked for over the course of years."

"I know that." She conceded, running her tongue over her lips as she stared at him with a somber expression, "Lately, I just look around at how much has changed and how much I've lost and sometimes I'm not sure it's really worth all of the sacrifice."

"How can you say that?" He asked, looking appalled at her words.

"Just look at Falcone –yeah, he's got money and power and he calls the shots in Gotham, but what price did he pay to get there? Look at how easily he fell for Liza –at the end of the day, I think he's just a lonely old man-"

"With an empire under him." Oswald cut in and Bird shrugged, "Clearly that empire doesn't give him everything he needs –he was going to just hand it all over, for the chance to disappear from the city with someone he cared about."

Her eyebrows knotted and she looked down as she admitted, "I don't want to turn into Falcone. I'm not so sure I want to be at the top of an empire if it only leaves me feeling empty –cold and alone."

"You won't be alone." He asserted, "You will always have me."

When she refused to look up at him, he started to understand that she was more than likely speaking about Harvey and possibly even her brother. It was true in the sense that to truly be at the top of the game, she'd end up leaving all of them behind, but a year ago none of that mattered to her. A year ago she'd have walked right out of her life without looking back.

Rapidly, his eyes darted back and forth over her face as she finally raised her head to face him.  
"You're saying you just want to walk away from everything we've accomplished and built?" His voice was frantic, rushed and more nasally than usual.

"I didn't say that-" She started to argue, but he cut her off as the scared look on his face gave way to something else.

"Good, because we are both in too deep to simply walk away. You made a promise, Bird… and without you everything I've been risking life and limb for will be for nothing. Without you, it's all been in vain and without you –I'm dead. You realize that, don't you?"  
Scrambling over to her nightstand, he retrieved the switchblade knife she'd stolen from him the day they first met and opened it as he quickly walked back to her.

Reaching down he grabbed her hand and placed the handle in her palm and folded her fingers over it, raising her arm he kept ahold of her hand and placed the sharp tip to his chest and his eyes were dark as he hissed, "You might as well just kill me. Right here, right now. If you don't someone else will, but either way my blood will be on your hands."

Her eyebrows furrowed and she tried to pull her hand from the knife, but he had an unsually tight grip on her as he clutched onto her hand over the knife tightly. His palms were cold and clammy as he looked into her eyes and admitted, "I need you. Bird, I need you and if you can no longer be-"

"Oswald, stop it!" Bird yelled, as she looked down and saw a growing crimson stain on his white button up shirt from under the blade.

"Just kill me!" He shouted back at her, his teeth gritted in pain and sweat starting to pool on his face as the crazed look in his eyes grew even darker and he pulled on her hand with the blade causing the tip to cut even deeper into his skin.

Raising her other hand she slapped him hard across his cheek, his face jerked to the side from the hard impact and he let go of her hand and the knife to place his hand against his cheek where it felt like his flesh was on fire.

"I'd sooner kill myself!" Bird screamed at him, as she tossed the still open blade behind her on the floor and took a few stumbling steps back from him with a frantic look on her face as she stared at him in disbelief.

With his hand still over his stinging skin, he took in a deep breath and appeared both relieved and pleased from the revelation he'd forced her to come to.

"Then it's settled… we're in this together." He calmly said, with the dark look still in his eyes and his gaze locked on Bird as she fought to catch her breath and continued to watch him with her mouth hanging open. He said, "I'm only sorry it took such extreme measures for you to come back to your senses."

"You're insane." She accused, angrily shaking her head at him.  
Cracking a smile he pointed out, "As are you… it just seems as if you've lost sight of who you are."

"And you were going to have me plunge a knife into you, to remind me?" She scoffed.

With a slight nod to the side, he looked up at her from under his eyebrows and reasoned, "Friendships often require painful sacrifices."

There was a lively look in her eyes that he hadn't seen for a while, as a smile spread over her lips and she started to laugh if for no other reason than the pure insanity of both the night and their friendship.

"I'll take that ride to Falcone's Mansion." Oswald finally said, holding a hand up as he said, "You needn't come inside, I'll be fine once I'm in the gates."

He turned towards her door and just as his hand landed on the doorknob, Bird promised, "I'll keep my word… I will help you over throw the old man and take the throne, but once that happens; once you're the king… I get to decide whether I want to rule with you or…" Her voice trailed off and she shrugged, "Or choose a different path."

His fire filled gaze burnt holes through the door as he focused on it and kept from looking back at her. Clearing his throat he gave a curt nod and managed to say, "Of course."

Oswald's hand tightened around the metal doorknob so tightly that he almost felt like he had the strength to crush it in his grip.  
She belonged on a throne next to his –he'd be the king and she'd be the queen of Gotham when it was all said and done.

He was sure of that.

 **~()~**

After dropping Oswald off at Falcone's Mansion, Bird felt like she had a whirlwind inside of her threatening to tear her up from the inside out.

So many times she'd been told that she needed to choose between the darkness and the light inside of her –as Fish said; she couldn't be both the sinner and the saint.  
It seemed as though people close to her felt she had both an angel and a devil residing somewhere within her.

Maybe there was some truth to that, Bird wasn't sure. Mostly she felt like there were two different, feuding versions of herself that had been there for as long as she could remember.  
Most heads are crowded enough holding a single mind and on the days when she was at war with herself it felt like there were two different people boxing for power inside of her skull.

She wanted it all –she wanted to stay with Harvey and be everything good that he somehow saw in her, she wanted to keep her best friend and rule over Gotham. Maybe it was possible to have it all, but she wasn't a fool –even if that was achievable she wasn't foolish enough to think it would last.

Sooner or later one version of herself would overpower the other and only one path would be available from the fork in the road.  
It was those thoughts, the thoughts of everything she stood to lose from taking either course that left her feeling frantic –caused her to feel as though life was slipping through her fingertips like a handful of loose dirt and no matter how hard she tried to hold on –more and more of it kept falling away.

Instead of going home, she went to Harvey's apartment in the hope that she could find a calmness in herself from being near him. He had the uncanny ability to make her feel like an entire person instead of broken pieces, to feel whole was something she desperately needed.

Her hands where shaking as she raised her arm and knocked on the large wooden double doors leading into his apartment.

Hearing a knock on his door, Harvey stood up from where he'd been knelt down picking up the trash from his living room. He'd spent the better half of the day trying to undo the mess he'd made of his apartment, now that his head was clearer and things were back to good between him and Bird –he couldn't believe he'd let everything get so out of hand.

Cleaning up his apartment was only the first part of it; his next goal was to shower and change into clean clothes –he felt like he'd been wearing the same shirt and pants for a week.

Dropping the nearly full black trashbag to the floor, he walked over and opened the door. Surprised to see it was Bird, they'd had plans to go out the following night and he hadn't expected to see her before then.

"Hey…" He breathed, glancing around with a slightly ashamed look on his face as he reached up and felt how much stubble he had from the days he had of barely caring enough to even brush his teeth.

As she walked through the doors and past him, he looked back to his still messy living room and said, "I was just starting to get things cleaned up."

"It's okay, my place looks a lot worse." She assured him as he turned back to face her from closing and locking the door. "I have a friend staying with me and neither of us have felt like cleaning anything lately."

Catching the look in her eyes he walked up to her and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing really." She lied, offering a smile as she laid her hands flat against the black t-shirt over his chest and said, "I just wanted to see you."

"I'm glad you're here, but you seem like somethings bothering you." He pointed out, watching her with a growing fear inside of him that maybe things hadn't gotten back to normal between them as quickly as he'd thought they did.

"Just needed to see you." She asserted, sliding her arms around him and leaning against him, the soft fabric of his shirt clutched tightly in her hands.

His concerned expression grew as he folded his arms around her protectively and held her close. As much as he loved having her in his arms and that she came to him when she was upset, it always worried him when she wouldn't tell him what it was that she needed comforting from.

Her eyes pinned shut and she nestled her head against his chest, trying to focus on the strong and steady beating of his heart –trying to draw as much comfort from him as possible. But for the moment it didn't seem to be working very well.  
Even in his loving embrace she still felt more like a storm than a person.

"You're worrying me." He admitted, as he lowered his head and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head.

The loving gesture put a soft smile on her lips and she raised her head and said, "I'm not trying to. You don't need to be worried, I just…" Her voice trailed off when she realized she couldn't even begin to put how she was feeling into words.

"You just… what-" He started to ask, but before he could finish his sentence she raised up and silenced him with a kiss, her lips crashing forcefully against his in a move so sudden and unexpected that it took a moment for his mind to catch up to what was happening.

Her fingers raked through his hair as she pulled his face even closer to hers and relished in the feeling of his warm hands through the fabric of her dress.  
Heat started to pool in his stomach and his hands landed on her hips when he pulled her body tightly against him.

Her hands slid down his chest and stomach to the bottom of his shirt and she gathered the worn fabric in her fingers as she started to raise it up his body. Her mouth still moving hungrily against his, her every touch full of need –the need to feel something other than the hurricane inside, she needed to feel something real.

As she started to pull his shirt off, he gently grabbed onto her wrists and admitted with a low laugh in a husky voice that made her legs feel unable to support her, "I haven't showered in days."

Raising up she pressed another urgent, pleading kiss to mouth, "I don't care." The confession was whispered against his lips and he swallowed hard in response, wanting nothing more than to rip both sets of their clothes off and take her right then and there, it felt like it had been eternities since he'd felt her touch.

"I've missed you." He whispered, his breath was thick and humid against her skin when his mouth found the spot on her neck that made her knees go weak. With a moan she rolled her head the opposite direction to give him better access, her entire body trembled with the sensation of his teeth grazing over her skin.

His mouth trailed over to the top of her shoulder and her hands slid up under his shirt and she drug her short nails over the muscled flesh of his stomach, causing him to open mouth groan against the top of her shoulder.

Even after being with him several times, she couldn't deny that she normally still felt a little apprehensive –still fearing that she could get pulled from the moment with him by the awful memories forever scarred in her mind.  
He'd always been patient with her and they'd always taken things slow, but she didn't want slow that night. She needed to feel his naked flesh against hers, be as close to him as humanly possible.

Grabbing back onto his shirt she started to lift it and with his help got it up over his head, where she then tossed it somewhere on the floor behind him and pulled his face back to hers as his fingers located the zipper on her dress.

Blindly, they made their way towards the bedroom, as Bird kicked her shoes off near the edge of the living room; neither of them able or willing to take their hands off of the other.

Her dress fell to the floor, landing in a puddle at her feet just inside of the bedroom door and in their stumbling journey they bumped into the dresser, causing some of the contents on top to fall to the floor. But the noise didn't seem to startle either of them.

Harvey ran his hands down her sides, roughly kneading the skin on her hips before he reached around and grabbed onto her butt with both hands and boosted her up where she hooked her legs around his waist. Her breath hitched in her throat at the feeling of his erection pressing against the steadily growing heat between her legs.

Her bra was gone by the time they made it the bed and his body lay above hers. Her body felt alive; her skin more sensitive than normal –like every cell was wide awake and anything other than his touch was an unnecessary irritation.

It wasn't until his face was buried back in the crook of her neck that she realized how differently his unshaven face felt against her skin and she couldn't get enough of the rough feeling his stubble made as it scratched against her skin when he nipped at her neck.

With a leg still hooked around him, their tongues were locked in a power play and she smirked against his open mouth as she bucked her hips up against him. Bird's fingertips dug into his back when his body jolted and tensed from the movement.  
Everything about her was driving him crazy. He was always ready to jump right into action with her, but knowing what she'd gone through in the past had been careful to not get carried away too soon or be too rough –even when all he wanted to do was tear off her clothing and invade her body with his own.

But that night, it was getting increasingly difficult to even think straight. He was dizzied with her, everything else around them was just a haze and she became the sole focus of his world.

With a loud gasp her body arched up from the mattress against him when his teeth sunk into the skin over her collarbone; the action sent rolling waves of pleasure and electric bolts of pain all over her body.

Just as quickly as she'd lunged up from the bed, she was pressed back down. Her head flattening the pillow under her as she fought for a breath and clutched onto a fistful of the cotton sheet beneath her when his head bowed to her chest, licking and sucking on one of her breasts. Taking care to not neglect the other, he less-than gently squeezed her skin, before rolling and pinching her nipple between his finger and thumb.

Running her hand through his hair; slowly dragging her fingernails over his scalp she helplessly breathed out his name, "Harvey…"

He kissed back up her bare chest, and over to the skin on the front of her neck while she had her head tilted so far back.

"Yes?" He whispered back, with his face back above hers.

Her face was flushed; skin dewy over the pink tint her cheeks had taken on as she stared up at him, with slightly furrowed brows and lust heavy eyelids. Nothing else needed to be said as she ran her fingertips across his shoulder blades and down his arms, staring up at him like he was the center of her world.  
There was darkness in his eyes, a heavy look full of avidity as he lowered her head and pressed a deep kiss to her lips. Running his hand down her soft skin, he caused her to moan out loud into the room when he began to rub her through the fabric of her underwear, he could feel her entire body quivering under his touch before he raised up and removed the last of his own clothing and pulled the damp, flimsy underwear off of her body –he took a moment to drink in the sight of her bare body.

As he settled back over her, she wasted no time reaching between them and guiding his swollen manhood to her entrance. Their eyes were locked in a heavy, intense stare as he pushed himself into her in one swift movement, taking her by surprise as he normally took his time and let her body adjust to the invasion.  
Her eyes pinned shut and her sweet breath rushed over his face, when he reached down and grabbed onto her hips, angling her lower body so that he could completely burry himself inside of her.

Her head dropped back against the pillow and her hands desperately clutched onto him when he almost entirely withdrew before plunging back into her body harder and faster than the first time.  
She lost sight of time and her surroundings, unable to keep a single thought in her head as he continued the rough movements –his hands holding her in place, surely leaving fingerprint bruises behind on her smooth, pale skin as he took her.

Once his grip slid from her hips, he ran his hands up the sides of her body and she raised up to meet him as she pulled his face back to hers. Her open mouth smashed against his as they both struggled for a breath. Arms snaked around his body when Bird laid the rest of the way back down and pulled him down on top of her with her short nails digging into his back and leaving raised, red lines on his skin.

Harvey's face was buried against her neck with his erratic, rushed breathing hot against her skin grunting with every forceful thrust of his hips.  
With the weight of his body pressing down on hers and the masculine noises in her ear, her breath was coming out in fits of shallow gasps, panting with his name burning on her tongue.

With both of their bodies slicked in sweat, Bird writhed underneath him and tried to bring her hips up to answer his every thrust –but there was no rhythm to his movements, just the feeling of his body pounding unrelentingly into her.

His movements were uneven, at varying speeds and depths –it was frantic, desperate and somehow exactly what she needed and so different from any of the other times they'd slept together.

A fire started to erupt in her stomach, her muscles tightened and she gasped for a breath as he picked up the pace and slammed into her harder and faster than before. His grunts against her neck were louder as an animalistic tone took over his voice and she could no longer keep her eyes open when they started to roll back.

Her nails dug deeper into his back, leaving painful red scratches over his skin as she gripped onto him like she was falling through time and her voice filled the room, echoing in his ears as she came –hard and fast, completely swallowed up in the orgasm her body shuddered and clenched so tightly around his swollen erection, that catching his breath became nothing short of impossible.

She was just starting to come down when he reached his own pulsing release with his thrusts more erratic than before. The saltiness of her sweat stung his tongue as his teeth carved their outline into the skin on her shoulder and she still grasped onto him, holding him tight when he roughly thrust his way through his climax.  
His last few thrusts were deep and painfully hard into her still shaking body with him lost in his own quest for release.

Once he was able to catch a breath, he put his hands against the mattress and raised up so that she wouldn't be bearing all of his weight on her body.

She gave him a still breathless, small smile with heavy eyelids from reaching a point of near exhaustion, but Harvey hadn't missed the pained grimace she'd been wearing when he first raised his head and knew he'd gotten a little too rough at the end.

"Are you okay?" He rasped, still struggling to breath and keep his heart from racing right out of his rib cage.

Reaching up, she ran her fingers over the stubble on his face, smiling at the feeling of the rough hair under her touch as she nodded, "I'm okay."

With a smile of his own, he took her hand in his and intertwined their fingers. He peppered the side of her face with kisses when she turned her head to the side and looked at their joined hands.

"I love you." His lips never left her skin as he spoke and she rolled her head back until she was staring back up at him and whispered against his open mouth, "I love you too."

* * *

 **A/N - So... Bird made a new friend! She and Harvey are back together and Oswald is growing even more desperate to keep his Bird in his life; this can't end well, can it? :P**

 **I want to thank everyone who has followed and/or added this story to your favorites! I also owe a huge thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Love. Fiction. 2016, lyona5, Saskia D. Fox, Miss E charlotte, Melody Jane and xxXWolfsLullabyXxx for reviewing!**


	33. With Glitter In Her Hair

**XXXIII**

 _"Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it." ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

* * *

 **~(Flashback)~**

"You seem pretty far from home. You sure this is the right place?" The cab driver asked as he pulled to a stop near one of the most popular dive bars in Gotham City and eyed the fresh faced teenager as she leaned forward and handed him the fare money.

"This is the spot." Bird nodded, mumbling a "thanks" under her breath as she stepped out and pulled her school bag on her shoulder before ducking into an alley to use the unlocked side entrance.

"Bird!" Fish greeted upon hearing the door open and seeing her youngest employee walk in. The smile quickly fell from her lips as she saw the teenager was dressed in her school uniform.

With a sigh she reminded her, "What have I told you about coming around here in those clothes? It brings all the perverts out."

"Sorry." Bird apologized as she pulled her school bag off and laid it on the bar. She threw her hand up and waved at Butch from across the room before turning back to her boss and excitedly pointing out, "I've got less than a month left of school."

"Then we'll be seeing more of you here?" Fish guessed, watching as Bird started digging through papers in her bag.

Looking back and flashing a smile over her shoulder, Bird nodded, "Where else am I going to go? Hang around Wayne Manor and play chess with my brother?"

As she turned back around, she mumbled, "He always beats me anyway."

"Here." Bird said spinning around and handing a stack of freshly printed flyers to her boss and explained, "I skipped my last class and redesigned the advertisements for masquerade night this Friday. Changed the design and added more colors and glitter."

Taking the large stack of papers from her, Fish looked the new design over with a smile. Lately; the number of patrons at the dive had been dwindling some and so they were planning a number of upcoming events and theme nights to draw more people through the door.

"They're perfect!" She proudly complimented, earning a smile from Bird, until she added, "Maybe too much glitter?"

"I don't think so." Bird argued.

Holding up one of her hands, Fish showed her how just handling the flyers for a minute had left her palm covered in red and gold sparkles.

Looking down to her own hands, Bird saw she was also covered in the glitter and shrugged as she said, "One could argue there is no such thing as too much glitter."

With that Fish raised a brow at her, Bird held her arms out to the side and exclaimed, "It's just so shiny and sparkly."

Not able to hold back a laugh at the teenager, Fish shook her head and then snapped her fingers until two of her employees rushed out from the behind the bar to see what she wanted.

"Get these posters up around town." She ordered as she split the large stack into two smaller ones and handed them over.

Without protest the men headed straight for the doors with the masquerade night posters in hand.

Bird's eyes lit up as she watched them go. It never ceased to amaze her how much power and influence Fish held over everyone at the club. It was nothing short of magical to watch how they all waited and bowed to her every order.

One day, she thought, one day she'd know what holding that kind of power would feel like.

"I have an appointment." Fish announced, waving her finger at Butch who quickly came over with her coat in hand and started to help her put it on, she asked, "Are you staying here for a while?"

"Until my parents realize I skipped out on detention and start frantically calling me." She apathetically replied.  
Reaching up she pulled her hair out of the tight ponytail she'd wore it in for school that day, and rubbed her scalp completely forgetting about the glitter all over her hands as she ran her fingers through her long brunette waves. With a wide smile she added, "But I turn eighteen next month and then they can't control me."

"That reminds me…" Fish's voice trailed off and she turned and headed for the stairs where her office was located on the second floor, calling over her shoulder, "You can start getting the decorations up for Friday."

Nodding, Bird picked her bag up from the bar and headed to the employee only storage room located near the restrooms to put her bag away and start unboxing all of the decorations they'd ordered.

"Oswald!" She called out with a bright smile as she found her best friend in the room, with a clipboard in his hand, wearing a rather confused expression.

"Good afternoon, Bird." He immediately greeted back with a smile of his own.

"What's that?" She questioned, nodding to the clipboard.

Oswald let out a heavy sigh and eyed the door to make sure they were alone before complaining that he was supposed to make sure they had their usual supply of alcohol from their last shipment. They couldn't risk running out with a theme night coming up.

Only as usual, his head had filled with plans of the future –dreams of over throwing Fish and then even Don Falcone and ruling Gotham City.

With such plans, paying attention to small tasks at the club seemed too tedious to be fussed over. Only he now had no idea if they had near the amount of bottled liquor that they'd need.

"You've got to start paying attention to how things are done around here. You know Fish expects more out of you than just holding her umbrella and rubbing her feet." Pointing to the clipboard she added, "This stuff is important."

"Important?" Oswald scoffed, raising his eyebrows, "How is any of this going to be important when I'm the King of Gotham?"

The door to the room opened and they looked over to see one of the club's employee's walk in. He nodded towards them before opening up one of the boxes lining the wall.

Stepping closer to Oswald, Bird whispered, "Because everyone has to start somewhere and if we can't cut it working for Fish Mooney, we'll never depose anyone."

With that she plucked the clipboard from his hands and brushed past the other worker in the room on her way out to the bar, knowing that they first needed to see what was already stocked before they got into the other boxes.

It was several minutes later when Bird returned back to the storage room with plans of helping Oswald, until she pulled the door open and walked into the room to see Oswald standing over the now motionless body of the other employee who'd been in the room.

"Oswald?" Bird whisper yelled as she rushed over and pulled the crimson stained box cutter from her best friend's hand and looked down to see the other man's throat had been cut wide open. "What happened?" She demanded to know.

"He…" Oswald's thin frame shook as he strained to speak through the rage he was still feeling. "He said-"  
Pulling in a sharp breath he shook his head, teeth clenched as he started to explain, "Terrible things. He said terrible, inappropriate things about you."

"So you killed him?" Bird asked, looking down to the box cutter she'd taken from him. "What the hell did he say about me?"

Rage flashed red behind his eyes as he clarified, "It was more so, his saying the things he wanted to do to you."

Before she had a chance to ask much else, the door opened and Fish walked into the room –catching them both with blood on their hands.

"Well?" She yelled when neither of them offered up an explanation.

"Miss Mooney-" Oswald stuttered out.

"I'm sorry, Fish." Bird quickly said, before Oswald tried to come up with a story that would only make things worse on them.

Clutching the box cutter tightly in her hand, she lied, "I was just trying to gather the decorations for Friday and he just… he wouldn't leave me alone and I told him to stop. I pushed him away, but he grabbed me and I just-"

She pulled a shallow breath between her teeth and emotion filled her eyes, "I flashed back to what happened to me and then next thing I knew…" Holding up the box cutter she gave a dramatic shrug and added, "I'm sorry."

Oswald stared at Bird wide eyed as she took the blame for what had happened. She stood tall ready to accept whatever punishment was dealt for something he'd done.

This was the sort of thing he'd dreamt of his entire life. Having friends, or even a single friend, who cared about him enough to put their own necks on the line for him.

It felt like the lights in the ceiling above had turned into heat lamps; Bird could feel sweat starting to bead at her temples and she quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand.

She broke eye contact with her boss and fell into a state of shock. It wasn't like it was the first –or even the worst lie she'd told. But a part of her was in disbelief that she'd just used her being raped and nearly killed as an excuse for what happened.

When did this happen, she wondered. Had she really gotten so good at manipulating people that she'd say anything to get away with the bad things she'd done.

Letting out a sigh, Fish waved a single finger in the air and clicked her tongue in rhythm as she scolded, "Bad girl."

Once Bird looked back up to her, Fish muttered, "Just like a baby snake. Never knowing how much venom to use."

"You two." She motioned between Bird and Oswald, "I want this mess cleaned up by the time I get back; I want the room spotless, you understand?"

"Yes." They both nodded and answered in unison.

"This is for you." Fish said holding out a paper towards Bird, "An early birthday present."

Dropping the box cutter to the floor, Bird stepped over the puddle of blood and took the paper, immediately recognizing what it was; the paper she'd brought in and asked Fish to co-sign for an apartment she had her eye on.

Flipping to the next page she saw it was the paperwork for the lease, already filled out by the building manager and only missing her own signature.

"I got the apartment?" Bird nearly gasped, looking back at her with wide eyes and said, "They told me there was a whole process I'd have to go through and-"

Holding up a hand to silence her, Fish explained, "I sent Butch to reason with him."

"So I have apartment…"

"Sign those papers and it's yours on your eighteenth birthday-" Fish started to say, but Bird rushed forward and gave her a hug as she said, "Thank you!"

After returning the hug, Fish started to leave, before turning back around and reminding them again that she wanted every last trace of blood gone from that room.

Once they were alone again, Bird started to tuck the apartment papers into her school bag when she heard Oswald sigh from behind her.

"What?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at him.

"We're here to push Fish out, remember?"

His words and tone of voice immediately brought her mood down several notches and she breathed, "I agreed that taking her down was a necessary stepping stone on our climb to the top. I never agreed I wouldn't like her."

"Don't you give me that look!" She protested, as she turned to face her best friend. "You can't tell me you don't care at all about her. She's Fish, it's hard not to love her… and she cares about me too, you know."

"You're her favorite." He agreed, but the expression on his face still showed he was worried when it came down to it, that Bird wouldn't be able to separate her feelings from business.

"Just go get something to wrap the body in, we still need to clean up your _mess_."

 **~()~**

With a loud groan, Bird somehow managed to push the door at the bottom of the stairs open and drag the now wrapped corpse of the man from Fish's club and out onto the wet alley pavement.

Despite her trying to move as quickly as possible and maneuver the man's body outside with her, she hadn't been fast enough and the door started to close on the plastic wrapped bundle.

Struggling to catch her breath, Bird grabbed onto the plastic and roughly started to try and pull it the rest of the way outside, but she could no longer get the body to move and instead the thick plastic started to rip open.

"Come on!" She yelled out in frustration, now wishing she'd just stayed at school and suffered through detention.

Especially, since after Oswald pulled one of the club's cars around to the side exit –he'd since seemed to disappear on her. Leaving her to start disposing of the body by herself.

Typical, she thought to herself, typical Oswald –make a mess that she was left to her own devices to clean up.

Cursing under her breath, she grabbed back onto the plastic and pulled with all of her might at the same time she kicked the door open further and finally was able to pull the wrapped body free.

Not pausing to catch her breath, or give any mind to her now achy and weakened muscles; she moved as fast as she could to where the car was sitting with the trunk open and didn't stop until she reached it.

It seemed like just another day to Victor Zsasz as he started to round the corner to get to the side entrance of Fish's club. Sure, he enjoyed his job much more when it involved the torture and murder of his boss's enemies. But he couldn't complain being tasked with side errands now and again, not only was it proof of Falcone's trust in him –it was also an easy payday.

He slowed to a stop just as he neared the corner of the building when he heard noises from the alley. It wasn't unusual for the club's employees to frequent the alleyway, whether it was for smoke breaks or even roughing up someone who'd done Fish wrong.

Any number of possible scenarios was playing through his head –though not a single one came close to the sight he was met with when he entered the alley.

He saw a teenage girl, dressed in a school uniform of one of the private academies in Gotham, desperately struggling to get a body wrapped in plastic into the trunk of a car.

Victor slowed to a stop and watched as Bird let out a frustrated scream when the plastic slipped from her hands and the body fell with a thud to the ground.

A smile spread over his lips as he watched her put in another valiant effort, but she just wasn't strong enough to lift the body high enough on her own; from the looks of it, she'd been at it for quite some time.

As the body fell back to the ground, Bird angrily started to kick the plastic bundle until she could no longer feel her right foot. Hissing in pain, she leaned over with her hands on her knees and fought to catch her breath.

It was impossible without Oswald's help there was no way she going to manage to load the corpse into the back of the car. But being someone who didn't like to admit defeat, she bounced on her feet a few times, pulling in deep breaths and trying to psych herself up to lifting the body again.

"Need some help?"

With a gasp Bird let go of the plastic and the body dropped back to the ground where the unmistakable crack of bone against cement filled her ears when the man's head collided with the pavement.

As she spun around to face him, Victor got a better look at her –which made the situation evermore comical to him. From the school uniform and deer in the headlights stare –topped off with red and gold glitter in her brunette waves.

She looked like the last person on earth who'd be trying to dispose of a body.

"Hello." He said, raising his hand and waving at her.

Her eyes widened as Victor stepped closer and she looked him over; dressed in all black, with a loaded over the shoulder gun holster on display. He was bald and she found the absence of both his eyebrows and eyelashes extremely unsettling.

Able to see right off the bat that she was clearly startles and unnerved, Victor pointed out, "This is typically the point where you say hi back."

"Hi." Bird stammered, her eyes dropping to the body she'd been struggling with and then back to him. Swallowing hard she questioned, "W-who are you?"

The smile on his lips as he stared at her, seemed anything but friendly. Everything about the hairless man was predatory, she found herself thinking that if sharks were able to smile –that's exactly how it would look.

"Who are you?" Victor countered.

"Bird."

"Bird?"

"Bird." She nodded.

"You look like you could use some help, Bird." He observed, nodding to the body on the ground.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, surprised she could even talk at this point. Her skin was crawling and heart pounding so hard inside of her chest that she feared it might give out any second.

The only thing she was currently aware of –was that this man had stumbled upon her with a wrapped up dead body and thoughts of spending the rest of her life in Blackgate were creeping in. That couldn't happen. There was no way she was going to prison for this, she was just a month shy of turning eighteen and gaining all the freedom's she'd been craving.

"Just happened to be passing by." He shrugged, eyes squinted in wonder at her.

"And you decided to stop and offer help to someone trying to put a dead body in the trunk of a car?" She asked him.

Holding his arms out to the sides, Victor commented, "I guess chivalry isn't dead after all."

"Yeah… okay." She huffed under her breath, clearly not believing a word he told her.  
Her gaze cut back to the holster and gun under his arm and she quickly looked away before he could catch her line of sight and figure out what she was planning.

"You grab that end." She instructed, moving to where she was standing on his same side where the gun was.

With his help they got the body up and into the trunk of the car, and Bird seized the opportunity of him being distracted to snatch the gun from the holster and point it at him.

Taking a step back Victor looked at her, his eyes narrowing in anger as he stated, "That's mine."

"Yeah, well stupid move." She frantically called out, her hand shaking as she clutched onto the handgun and tried to keep her aim steady.

"Stupid move." He nodded in agreement, his lips turning up into another near diabolical smile, "On your end, that is."

Seeming to not hear him, Bird pushed the sweaty hair out of her eyes with her free hand and explained, "I… I can't let you go. You saw the body y-you can tie this to me and I'm not going to prison!"

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" He laughed. Clearly more amused with how the situation was playing out, than he was worried. He didn't seem concerned in the slightest.

When she didn't say anything, and just continued to nearly tremble as she faced him down. Victor blew out a sigh, "You shouldn't point a gun at someone unless you're ready to use it. You'll get yourself killed that way… hasn't anyone ever told you that?"

"I'll use it." She warned, trying to will her arm to stop shaking.

The truth was, she'd be much more comfortable with a knife in hand than a firearm. It wasn't all that long ago that she'd nearly been killed from ending up on the wrong side of a gun.

For the past few months Butch had been working with her on how to shoot a gun and show her there wasn't a reason to be afraid as long as she was in control and on right side of barrel. Only now, with each passing second she was becoming aware that maybe she wasn't as prepared for this as she'd thought.

"Bird!" Oswald yelled as he rushed over to her after coming out of the club, "W-what are you doing!"

"He… he saw the body." Bird admitted.

"That's Victor Zsasz." He quickly said, "He's here to collect the club dues for Don Falcone."

It didn't seem humanly possible, but her brown eyes widened even more at the newly learned news. She'd never crossed paths with him before, but she'd heard his name before. He didn't only have a reputation as a highly skilled assassin –but he was also known to be Falcone's right hand man.

He was right, it was a stupid move pulling a gun on him.

The color slowly drained from her face as she lowered the gun and spilled an apology, "I'm sorry. I just…" All reasoning seemed to evade her and she shrugged, offering the gun back to him, "I'm sorry."

Ignoring her, he returned the gun to his holster and asked, "You got the money, Penguin?"

Oswald's jaw tensed and he used all of his restraint to keep his voice steady as he held out the large envelope and said, "Our apologies. Bird made a mistake, it won't happen again."

He eyed the friend's for a moment, before turning and starting to leave until Bird called after him.

"I had a gun on you… why weren't you scared?"

She'd give anything to stare the barrel of a gun down as fearlessly as he had.

"Are you serious?" Victor asked, a creepy laugh sliding from between his teeth with a near hiss as he looked her over.

"Bird." Oswald quietly said, trying to get her attention –but she didn't hear him.

"I want to know." Bird pushed.

"You're harmless." He stated.

"I'm not-" She started to argue, but Victor turned and started to walk away. Not interested in what she had to say, but to add insult in injury he called over his should, "The glitter in your hair is a nice touch though."

"Hey! Screw you, I'm dangerous!" She yelled in all of her stubbornness and youthful ignorance; she lunged towards him, but Oswald quickly curled an arm around her midsection and brought her to a stop.

Victor laughed to himself at hearing her outburst echoing off the tall buildings around them. He had no idea what sort of people Fish Mooney was adding to her staff these days, and he was sure that Bird wouldn't last more than a few weeks in the trenches with the crime family.

"What are you doing?" Oswald whisper yelled at her as he watched Victor disappear out of sight around the building.

"Where were you?" She snapped at him, pushing him away from her as he was still trying to hold her back from going after the highly skilled assassin.

"When I went back inside, Fish called and asked me to gather up the monthly dues-" He tried to explain, but she no longer cared to hear the explanation and slammed the trunk of the car shut and muttered that she'd drive them to the docks.

 **~(End of flashback)~**

Bird's eyes started to open when she thought she felt a drop of water on her face. Groggily she raised a hand and wiped her forehead before readjusting her head against the pillow and starting to drift back off to sleep until a few more small droplets landed on her cheek, followed by another one startling her awake when it landed on her closed eyelid.

Once her eyes were fully opened, she gasped as she saw Victor Zsasz standing at the foot of the bed with a cup of water in his hand. "Morning." He greeted, dipping his fingers back into the cup of cold water and flipping it onto her face like he'd been doing for the last several minutes.

Bird sat up so fast she just barely caught hold of the sheet to keep her bare body covered as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him with a look of horror on her face. His eyes fell to where her arms were when he saw her roughly pinching her arm as if she were going to be able to wake herself up from a nightmare.

"I'm quite real." Victor assured her, his stare intense as he watched her squirm uncomfortably under his gaze.

He glanced over to where Harvey was sleeping on his stomach with his bare back displaying the red scratch marks Bird had left on him, before he looked back to her and saw bite mark on her shoulder. Victor's lips curved up as he questioned, "What happened here?"

Bird whipped her head to the side to make sure Harvey was okay and still sleeping.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered, barely able to get her mouth to form words.

"Well…" Victor said, stepping closer to the bed and internally smirking when he saw her growing increasingly frightened. So many times he'd seen her trying to pretend she didn't fear him, and now she looked spooked enough that she could have jumped right out from her skin.

Bird frantically looked down to where Harvey was still sleeping next to her, and then back to the hitman standing at the foot of the bed with wide eyes as she said, "Whatever you have to do… please… not here."

Watching her closely, he saw the terror and desperation on her face –the same expression he'd seen on the faces of many of the people he'd killed.

"Love?" He questioned, motioning with his free hand towards Harvey, but the only response he got from Bird was the same shell-shocked expression.

Letting out a sigh he looked towards the ceiling in irritation as he complained, "Such a trivial and hindering emotion to be bound by."

He stared her down, watching her squirm like she'd been put under a microscope before he replied in a voice just above a whisper, "I'm not here for him."

Looking infinitely relieved she let out a relieved breath and he smiled as he pointed out, "I wouldn't look so pleased –that means I'm here for you."

Nodding she kept the soft sheet clutched over her chest as she whispered, "I understand. Let me get dressed and I'll come with you –willingly."

The chilling expression on his face was even more unsettling with his absence of eyebrows as he continued to keep his eyes fixated on her.

"It's not like I have anywhere to run." She pointed out, her eyes still wide.

Slowly he nodded, a threatening smile pulling at the corners of his mouth when he said, "What a shame… I do enjoy the chase."

Just as he was out of the room, Harvey started to wake up –wearing a look of confusion when he thought he'd heard voices. His brown eyes squinted as he looked around the room and considered he must have been dreaming, until his eyes landed on where Bird was sitting up beside him.

"What are you doing?" He sleepily asked, reaching a hand out and rubbing his fingertips over the back of her arm as he spoke.

"Everything's okay." She somehow managed to say in a calm voice, "I have somethings I need to do, just go back to sleep."

With one eye still open and struggling to focus on her he questioned, "Will I still see you tonight?"

"I don't know." She answered truthfully, starting to grow panicked with the realization that she had no idea why Victor was even there for her and before she could stop herself the distress of the situation manifested itself in a laugh, which quickly escalated into hysteria until she cupped her hand over her mouth to physically stop herself from laughing.

Raising up some, Harvey looked slightly more awake and rather startled as he asked, "Why are you laughing like that?"

"I don't know." She breathed helplessly as she rubbed her hands over her face and struggled to keep from bursting out into another fit of inappropriate laughter.

Knowing she needed to get out of there before Victor came back to physically drag her out of there with him, Bird shook her head, "Lack of sleep I guess. I'll call you later about tonight?"

Slowly he nodded in acceptance of the answer, and gave her a smile when she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips.

Once he laid his head back down, she leaned out of the bed and grabbed her bra and underwear up from the floor and pulled them under the sheet with her as she put them on. Thankful to at least have that much of her body covered, Bird slid out of the bed and darted across the room where she picked her dress up and ducked behind the door to pull it on and zip up the back.

Taking one last look back at the bed, she pulled in a deep breath and tried to find solace in knowing that even if today was her last day on earth, she'd at least gotten to spend her last night wrapped in the arms of the man she loved.  
And if willingly walking like an animal to the slaughter kept Harvey safe and alive, then she'd take what she had coming to her.

Stepping out into the living room she pulled the bedroom door closed and looked up to see Victor was watching the city out of one of the large windows and she swallowed down her fears long enough to locate her shoes and pull them on.

Once they were out of the apartment and on the elevator, Bird glanced over to the eerily silent man next to her before she asked, "How did you know I was here?"

"Carmine Falcone likes to keep tabs on his people." Victor answered, smirking as he added, "Especially the ones who continually disappoint him."

Bird's heart picked up speed from inside of her chest, when it came to being brought in by Zsasz, she'd have rather just taken a bullet to the brain than see the basement of horrors he liked to bring his newest playthings to for a variety of reasons –none of them good ones. She knew even if someone was released from him that they weren't ever the same again.

As the elevator opened on the ground floor, he took an uncomfortably tight grip on her arm and led her out of the doors and right out front where the car he'd driven there was still running. After practically pushing her into the passenger seat, he slammed the door behind her and crossed around to the driver's side.

As soon as the door was shut behind, her Bird tested the handle but just as she'd suspected it wouldn't open from the inside. Quickly she did a check of the backseat and came to the startling realization that the only door capable of being opened from the inside was the driver's door –which Victor was now blocking as he sat behind the wheel.

As he pulled out into traffic she questioned, "So… I take it your orders are to bring me in alive?"

Knowing how unsettling silence and unanswered questions could be to the anxious and haunted mind, Victor didn't say anything at all. He didn't even give her the satisfaction of looking over at her.

The palms of her hands were sweaty as she wiped them on her dress and nervously tapped her foot against the floorboard of the car, feeling sicker by the second.

"What does Falcone want with me?" She pushed, hoping to gain any tidbit of information rather than going into the situation blind.

That was a question Victor himself would like answered. His orders for the day were to bring her in alive, he was given strict orders to bring her alive and if possibly unharmed –though he had been given discretion to use force if need be.

He didn't have anything personal against Bird, in truth he was probably as fond of her as he could be of any living thing. She was pretty to look at and her sharp tongue and foolish-bravery was amusing to him.

Hhowever, he did not understand why she was still allowed to breathe after her betrayals, any more than he understood why on earth Falcone had caved to her wishes and spared Jim Gordon's life so many months ago.

Then again he also didn't understand why Oswald had been allowed to live either. It seemed as of late his boss was making several decisions that didn't seem to hold much rationality.

He knew Falcone well enough to know that any other person who'd acted out in the ways that Bird had –he'd have been given orders to kill them on sight. He'd actually given a fair amount of thought to that, wondering what made her so special in the crime boss's eyes. He doubted her being a Wayne would have had anything to do with it and he also didn't feel it was any sort of romantic interest –it was also something entirely different from how Falcone had seemed to feel about Liza.

He glanced over at the brunette sitting perfectly still in the passenger seat, still looking terrified with her dark hair fuzzed out and sticking up in every which way. With a shrug he dismissed the thoughts, it was of little concern to him anyways –he just knew that if the orders were given to kill Bird, that he wanted to be the one who released her from the living world.

Bird glanced over at him without turning her head, he appeared to either be focused on traffic or lost in his thoughts. Not taking much time to question which one, she slowly reached back and grabbed onto her seatbelt and slowly pulled it across herself; clicking it into place. Cringing from the metal snap sound, she looked over but he didn't seem to notice the movement.

Bird fought to keep her breathing even and steady to not draw his attention. She knew she'd have one chance to get away and if she blew that chance whatever would be waiting on her after would be a worse fate than originally intended.

As he started to make a left handed turn, Bird's heart jumped up into her throat and she fought to keep it down as she grabbed onto the steering wheel and swung her leg into his floorboard, forcing him to step down on the gas pedal and send them speeding ahead towards a tree.

The impact was harder than she'd expected, and the loud sounds of metal crunching made her ears feel like they'd been plugged up with cotton. Her neck and side hurt from the seatbelt straps, but she fought through the pain and unlatched hers.  
She only gave a quick glance to Victor, who was sitting motionless with his head leaned against his window and a thick trail of blood running down the glass.

Jerking the headrest from her seat, she used the thick metal prongs to bust the glass out of her own window and then scrambled out of the opening and onto the ground where she landed on her hands with her wrists aching.

Somehow she got to her feet and looked around disoriented, trying to figure out her next move. She needed to run, she knew that, she needed to get the hell out of there, but beyond that she couldn't keep her thoughts straight enough to determine which way to run.

There were a few pedestrians standing on the sidewalk across the way pointing towards the wrecked car and talking amongst themselves, traffic was backed up at the turn from everyone watching to see what was going to happen next and she saw an older man walking towards her with his lips moving but she couldn't understand a word he was saying and before she could understand what was happening she was forcefully knocked down to the ground from behind.

Scrambling to flip over on her back and see what had happened behind her, she saw Victor climbing out of the car from the door he'd just kicked open and knocked her down with. Standing up, fire raged in his eyes as he stared down to her wiping the blood from his eyes and spitting it out from his mouth.

Her muffled, silent world started to come back into focus and with it came the sound of her beating heart echoing in her head. Swinging her leg out, she brought Victor down to the ground and scurried to her own feet as she took off running away from him.

It felt like she'd been running forever before she ended up in an old warehouse on one of the rarely used Gotham River ports. Leaning against a tall metal support beam, she hissed out in pain as she raised the hem of her dress and saw the bleeding wound on her leg where she'd been grazed with a bullet in her attempt to flee. Fearfully she looked down to the trail of blood droplets she'd been leaving behind her.

 _"BIRD!"_

Victor's voice rang out through the metal structure, bouncing off the walls and floor like the creepiest melody she'd ever heard.

She could hear his heavy footsteps as he walked through the building, firmly planting one shoe down after the other and listening for any sounds of her breathing or movement.  
He was sure this was the place she'd ran into.

"Come on, Bird." He said, coming to an abrupt stop and turning his head to the right when he thought he'd heard something, but once his eyes landed on a large rat scurrying out from under some boxes he picked up his search again, "Don't be this way… I have been told to you bring you in alive, but-"

Whirling around he caught a split second glimpse of her back as she rushed out of the door and out onto the docks. Blowing out a heavy sigh, he chased after her with thoughts of how Gotham had become such a strange place.

First, months ago, he'd been bested by then rookie GCPD detective, Jim Gordon, and if that wasn't failure enough now a girl barely in her twenties that was putting up more of a fight than he'd ever imagined.

Falcone had told him to take some back up, but he'd assured his boss that he didn't need it. He'd taken down fully armed crews of more than ten people on his own and not even suffered a single scratch.  
Of course, his current endeavors would have been much easier if his instructions had been to kill her, or even if he'd had permission to use whatever means necessary to bring her in –there was no way she could out run him with a blown kneecap or severed foot.

Following the trail of blood across the old, cracked asphalt he shook his head at himself and his own foolishness for how he'd handled the situation.  
He'd given her too much leniency, she'd been very cooperative and hadn't given him any reason to believe she was going to pull a stupid move like crashing the car.

Using the evidence she'd left behind in her injured state and his tracking instincts he'd gotten on top of a large truck then used exposed metal pipes to pull himself up on the roof of a building that seemed to be crumbling under his every step.

"Looks like you're all out of places to run." He called out, retrieving one of the guns from his double shoulder holster he took aim at her and steadily but gradually moved closer to where she was standing.

He knew he couldn't severely wound her, but he hoped at this point she'd be both too tired and injured to give him much of a fight and knowing he was armed when she wasn't.  
The weapon was more of an intimidation tactic.

There was a crazed look in her eyes as she stared back at him, her breathing ragged from pain and adrenaline coursing through her veins.  
Seeing the completely unhinged look she had, he slowed then came to a stop when he saw her backing towards the edge of the building that was at the water's edge.

They were very high up and with her already injured he wasn't sure if she'd survive the fall and he was sure the only thing worse than not bringing her back to his boss –would be bringing just a corpse in.

"You're just making things difficult. This is simple enough –just come with me back to Falcone." He finally said.

Her mouth hung open and he was sure she was going to agree with him, but instead all that came out was one of the most unnerving laughs he'd ever heard. In truth, she knew her fight was already lost, but her stubbornness had kept her going.

Victor's head cocked to the side as he stared at her with a stunned expression –it wasn't often that someone could elicit any sort of feeling from him –let alone one that left a chill running down his spine.  
That was normally a reaction he caused people around him, not the other way around.

Without a single word to him, she spread her arms out to the sides and stepped backwards off the roof.

In a split second he'd raced across the top of the rundown structure and stopped just at the edge as he saw her body break the surface of the water and be swallowed up in the darkness of the frigid river.

His eyes darted back and forth, looking for her to resurface but it was nearly impossible to tell with the wind blowing waves across the water.

Shaking his head, he smiled at her last crazed act of desperation, he shrugged his cross-back shoulder holster off and laid it down next to the gun he'd drawn on her on the roof top before he stepped up to the edge and did another scan of the water, before leaping from the edge with a maniacal laugh of his own that didn't stop until he himself had been completely swallowed up in the river.

He wasn't lying when he told her he enjoyed the hunt; in hindsight he'd never imagined it would have ended up with them in the river –but, being tasked with going after Bird was quite possibly the most entertaining situation he'd ever been put in with his line of work.

* * *

 **A/N – Bird put up a hell of a fight, huh? You know it was just the principal of it by the end. Haha. I also hope you all liked the flashback at the beginning and seeing how she first met Zsasz.**

 **Thank you to everyone who is reading and who has favorited/followed! Sometimes I wonder if there's much interest in this story, and I just wanted to let you know that I do see the fave/follow emails and I appreciate it!**

 **I'd also like to thank the awesome readers who left a review on chapter 32: SwingingOnAStar, Miss E Charlotte, Guest, PearLPrincess, and Love. Fiction. 2016! You guys are amazing, thank you!**


	34. Sweet Dreams

**XXXIV**

 _Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs" - Scott Adams_

* * *

The French doors opened to the room Falcone was sitting in and he raised his head to see Victor Zsasz walking in with Bird slung over his shoulder.

Coming to a breathless stop in front of his boss, he leaned forward to set her down and then roughly grabbed her arm to turn Bird around to face the crime boss, as she struggled to keep her balance with the ropes binding her ankles together. With a scowl she was still stubbornly trying to get the ropes off her wrists that Victor had tied her up with.

Falcone looked them both over, both of them looked entirely exhausted –bruised, bloody and dripping wet. He'd been wondering for well over an hour what was taking his number one gun so long to return to the mansion from his mission.

"I think we can untie her." Falcone said, a glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

"Boss!" Victor huffed, shaking his head back forth as he attempted to straighten his clothes out that were profusely dripping down on the carpet, as he argued, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"If she tries to run she won't even make it to the gate." Falcone pointed out.

Pulling a knife from his pocket, Victor extended the blade and moved to stand in front of Bird as he stared her down and she met his stare with an unwavering look of her own –back to pretending like his very presence didn't instill fear into her core.

After jumping into Gotham River after her, there had been a violent struggle in the water before he'd finally gotten her subdued landing a powerful blow to the side of her head, where she then appeared to have fallen unconscious and sank motionless back beneath the water and he had to dive down to bring her back to the surface.

After which he'd cursed the entire swim he had to make back to the dock, struggling to keep his own head above the waves while making sure Bird didn't go back under either. It wasn't until he'd fought to get her motionless body up on the dock and started to heave himself up from the freezing waves that it became undeniably clear that she'd only been pretending to be knocked out –when she raised up and kicked him square in the forehead knocking him back down in the water before scrambling back to her feet to flee from him again.

He'd managed to catch up with her a few minutes later where the struggle turned into a knock-down-drag-out fight between them, where she'd continued to surprise him with both her strength and will.  
But he'd eventually overpowered her and was able to get her legs and wrists bound where she could no longer escape him –though she never gave up trying.

A grin spread over his lips as he stared at her, his teeth stained from blood as he stood just inches in front of her.  
Refusing to let him intimidate her, Bird just kept her gaze locked on him and smiled back as she reminded him of what he'd been told to do, "The ropes."

The smile on his lips grew and he knelt down, cutting the ropes on her ankles before raising back and freeing her wrists.

"Thank you, young man." Falcone said as he stood up and laid a hand on Victor's shoulder before instructing him to leave them.

Once he was alone in the room with Bird, Falcone looked her over as he observed, "It looks like you put up quite a fight, my dear."

"Can't blame a girl for trying." She replied, staring straight ahead and not looking at the Don.

"Seems like a wasted effort though, doesn't it? I asked Victor to bring you here because we have some things to talk about." Falcone said.

"Yes, well, I was woken up this morning with Victor Zsasz at the foot of the bed staring me down, frankly I had no idea what was going to happen." Rubbing her hands over her face and raking back her still wet hair, Bird sighed, "Desperate times call for desperate measures, sir."

"That they do." He agreed still looking amused by the young woman.

"If all you wanted to do was talk to me then they didn't you just call?" She finally asked, looking up to him as he stood just in front of her.

"In truth, I didn't imagine you'd be very receptive to the idea after our last encounter." He admitted, turning around to walk back to his chair as he spoke.

Bird looked around, her jaw tensed and before she could stop herself she said, "When you strangled Liza to death."

His posture stiffened and slowly he turned back around, a warning look in his face he turned back to face her as he corrected, "When all of your betrayals came to light."

With raised eyebrows he questioned, "You didn't think everything had been atoned for, did you?" Motioning to a chair he instructed, "Sit."

Without a word she dropped into the closest chair and her eyes were glued to the floor as she questioned, "Where's Oswald? I heard that Maroni-"

"Safe." Falcone cut her off, "Cobblepot is safe, I've tasked him with taking over Fish's club –that's one business we can't afford to let falter."

He watched her for a few moments in silence before he questioned, "Why would you ask about him?"

Bird's mind drifted back to the last conversation she'd had with her best friend, that had turned into him reminding her how she'd promised to help him to climb to the top and it seemed suspicious that the very next morning she'd be dragged in to speak to the Don.

"Just seems strange. I haven't heard from you or anyone in weeks since everything happened –then you go public that Oswald is a part of the family and suddenly I'm dragged back into everything."

Reaching over to the small table beside his chair, he picked up his cup and took a drink of his still piping hot coffee before questioning, "Were you under the impression that your ties to the family had been severed?"

"I…" She breathed, giving a shrug, "I didn't know honestly. I can't imagine you'd put your trust in me again-"

"Actions have consequences, yes?" He cut her off, "I'm sure you've probably asked yourself on many occasions why you were spared after what you'd done. Yes, your friend did bargain to save your life, but I also thought the decision to leave you alive was a smart one."

Leaning back in the high back chair he was sitting in, he folded his hands in his lap and looked the young woman over. Letting her squirm under his attention before he explained, "I know what happened with Liza was mostly Fish's doing –using my love of my mother against me. That is unforgivable, but I can't imagine you had much doing in that; after all, how could you have known anything about my mother?"

"Sir…" Bird softly said, but he didn't give her much time to talk.

"I can forgive dishonesty, though I can't deny how disappointed I am with you. You have such potential and thinking I had your trust –I put my trust in you… it is a two-way street after all. Now I find myself playing through every encounter we've had and wondering how long you've been pulling the wool over my eyes." Blowing out a heavy sigh, Falcone stood up and walked to the large oak desk off to the side of the room and said, "Even so, the family has taken a hit and with Maroni sensing weakness, I need my best and brightest on the front lines."

Swallowing hard, Bird stood up and slowly approached the desk feeling like she was on trial and about to be handed her sentence.

Leaning back in the old leather chair he explained, "I'd planned for some time to bring you back in –give you a second and final chance to prove yourself and right all of the wrongs you've done."

Bird looked around awkwardly as Falcone took out his phone and placed a call, telling the person on the other end to come into the room.

When the door opened and Victor Zsasz returned, Bird felt her panic starting to return. The Don had been talking about righting wrongs and atoning for sins, for him to bring his best known and most feared enforcer into the conversation couldn't have been a good sign.

Stepping up beside Bird, Victor looked to his boss and asked, "Don Falcone?"  
Wondering what he'd been called back in to the room for. Glancing over to Bird, there was a look of excitement on his face as he considered maybe he was going to be instructed to work on her –or even kill her.

Falcone gave a nod in his direction before looking back to Bird as she stammered out, "I could help Oswald with the club… I was by Fish's side for a long time and I understand the inner workings. I'm good at what I do."

"That was my first thought as well." Falcone conceded, looking between Bird and Victor as the amused expression started to glimmer in his eyes and he added, "That was until you came here today. Not many people I know could hold their own for more than a single round with Victor, he's the best of the best –that's why I hired him onto my staff."

"No." Falcone said, gaining authority in his tone as he stood up and continued, "Nightclubs would be a waste of your talent. From now on I want you working with Victor, honing your skills and techniques."

"What?" She gasped, appearing completely dumbstruck from the news as she looked around franticly. Her widened eyes landed on Zsasz who stared back at her with an almost equally shocked expression.

"I know it will be an adjustment, but-" Falcone started to say, but being the loyal employee he was Victor gave an abrupt nod and asked, "When does she start?"

"You don't want to work with me!" She scrambled to say, turning to face him as her eyes pleaded for him to disagree with the Don, "After today you must hate me! Why would you want to work with me?"

Turning back to face her, Victor argued, "Hate is a strong emotion and I don't care enough about you for that to be true." An entertained look ignited in his dark eyes as they locked with hers and he continued, "If anything after today the situation between us is more amiable."

"Oh my god." She breathed, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead.

"If anything, I thought you'd be grateful for the opportunity to redeem yourself." Falcone said, standing up.

"I am." Bird quickly answered, "It's just… Don Falcone, I'm no stranger to violence, but I am not a hired gun."

"Do you consider that work beneath you?" He questioned, his voice had a threatening tone to it and she shook her head back and forth in response.

Looking between them, the delight in his eyes grew as Victor took a step forward and offered a different solution to their problem, "I'm still working on Gilzean, but boss –I could easily make Bird my first priority." Glancing to her, he added, "I don't think it would take more than a few weeks to make her much more compliable with your demands, you know I'm-"

"I don't believe that will be necessary, thank you Victor." Falcone declined, holding a hand up to silence him.

With a nod, Victor took a step back to where he had been standing, watching Bird from the corner of his eye he quietly complained, "What a shame."

"Okay!" She exclaimed, looking to Falcone with a helpless expression as she caught her breath and she hoped that an ounce of good might come from the seemingly hopeless situation, as she tried to bargain, "Let Butch go and I'll work for you as a hired killer."

"Forgive me." Falcone said with a smile as he stood from his seat and cleared his throat, "If anything I've said led you to believe that you are in a position to be making any sort of demands, then I must apologize. I don't think you're fully grasping how dire the situation you've landed yourself in is."

Seeing he had her complete and undivided attention he stated, "My dear, you have two choices here. You can either agree to work with Victor where you will surely be a valuable asset to the family –or you can take your punishment and pay for your betrayals… but understand that the debt will be paid in blood."

 **~()~**

"Hey best friend." Barbara greeted with a smile as Bird walked through the door of her apartment, but the blonde's mood quickly changed to one of concern when she saw how beat up her newest friend was.

"What happened to you?" She asked, walking over to her, "You look like you went twelve rounds with…" Her voice trailed off and with a small shrug she continued, "Well, you look like you were hit by a bus."

"I don't want to talk about it." Bird said, swallowing hard as she said, "Barbara, I really like having you as a friend, and having you here… but, I think it's time for you to go home or even to a hotel, for your safety."

"I don't understand." She stated, a hurt look pooling into her blue eyes. Bird was the first person she'd met in a long time that she'd bonded with so quickly, and despite her apartment being small and crowded –she was enjoying her time there. It was nice to not feel entirely alone and even if she felt like getting stoned in the middle of the day or not get off the couch, Bird never judged her for it. It was freeing to have someone like that around her.

"I'm in a lot of trouble." Bird finally sighed, "I look like this because I went twelve rounds with Victor Zsasz today, but I'm still breathing and it turns out that if I want to stay that way that a lot of things in my life are going to change."

Barbara swallowed hard, her mind going back to the single encounter she'd had with Zsasz –a man she saw as nothing short of a complete monster. Not being able to shake the terror he'd instilled in her was part of her reason for leaving Gotham in the first place.

"Like I said, you should probably go for your own safety, but if you want to stay until the end of the week-"

"Are you saying there's a chance Zsasz might show up here?"

When Bird nodded, Barbara turned back to face the living room, her eyes landing on her scattered belonging as she ran her fingers through her hair and said, "I should starting packing my things. I met up with Renee earlier to get my purse so I can get a hotel room."

"I'm sorry." Bird said watching as the blonde scrambled to pack up her bags, "It was pretty great having you for a roommate and friend."

Looking over her shoulder, there was a sadness in Barbara's eyes as she agreed, "I liked it too."

 **~(That night)~**

Letting out a heavy sigh, Jim walked into his apartment after another long day of working for the GCPD. Putting all of his time and effort into trying to make a difference in a city so corrupt that most days it felt like little more than complete wasted effort.

He'd declined his partner's offer of heading to a bar when their shift was over. Instead Jim opted to spend the night the way he spent most of them now –alone at home. Chasing the stress of the day away with a few drinks, before falling asleep and waking up the next day to start all over again.

Walking into the kitchen he started to lay his keys, badge and service weapon down on the counter to grab a beer. That was until he looked out into his living room and saw some bags sitting on his coffee table.

He glanced around, realizing that he'd came home to find all the lights on –when he knew without a doubt he'd shut them off before leaving for work that morning.

Picking up his gun, he slowly walked into the living room, taking care to check all his surroundings and make sure the room was clear so he didn't get blitzed attacked.

Keeping the weapon drawn with one hand, he used the other to look inside of the plastic bags labeled from the drugstore just around the corner. The bags contained various first-aid supplies and his eyebrows lowered in confusion.

Hearing a noise from his bathroom, the contents of the bags quickly became the least of his concern and he quietly approached the closed door.

Reaching down and being as silent possible, he tried the door handle and realized it was unlocked. Counting to three inside of his head, he forcefully pushed the door open and aimed his gun as he yelled, "GCPD!"

His eyes widened as he saw Bird sitting on the counter next to the sink, with her dress pushed up as she'd tried to stitch up the still bleeding wound on her outer thigh.

"Get out!" She yelled back at him, hopping of the counter and pushing him from the room before slamming the door in his face.

His brain was still struggling to catch up with not only what happened, but why on earth she was in his apartment at all. He didn't even know how she knew where he lived.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Bird lectured through the door.

"Knocking?" A dumbstruck look took over his face as he stared at the closed door and loudly yelled, "This is my apartment! What are you even doing here?"

"Clearly; I needed to speak to you." She sighed, as she pulled the door open before apologizing, "Sorry for bleeding all over the place."

As he stared back to her bruised and swollen face, not to mention the streaks of blood contrasting her fair skin. Jim asked, "What happened?"

"Are you any good at stitches?" She asked, ignoring his questioned as she held up the crimson stained curved needle and complained, "Because apparently, when it comes to stitching myself up… I am not."

Before she'd been allowed to leave the Falcone Mansion, the Don had offered to call one of the doctors on the crime family's payroll to check her over and tend to the wound on her leg –but she'd declined.

He opened his mouth to repeat his question, but she didn't give him time as she limped past him towards the couch; muttering to herself about how she'd stitched Oswald up several times in the past and didn't know why she was having such difficulties with her own leg.

"You gonna answer me or just keep bleeding all over my furniture?" He questioned in a gruff tone.

Sitting down on the couch, she shook her head and admitted, "Falcone sent Victor Zsasz after me." Shooting him a look over her shoulder she questioned, "Happy? Now are you going to help me or not."

"He sent Zsasz… to kill you?" He guessed, walking over and sitting on his coffee table across from her. Not understanding why trying to get information out of her seemed as difficult as pulling teeth.

"No, to bring me in alive." Bird explained, rubbing her sore collar bone from the seatbelt as she admitted, "I didn't know that for sure until after I crashed the car… but by then it was just the principal of it. I wasn't going in without a fight."

Moving the hem of her dress up just far enough to see the deep wound on her leg, she breathed, "Of course, I see the fault in my logic now. But in my defense, I had no idea if Falcone just wanted to talk to me or what was going to happen."

Her lips pressed into a thin line as she stared at the wound and wished she'd gotten it fixed hours ago, but she'd thought she could get by without stitches.

"What are you even doing here?" He finally managed to ask.

"I was mad." Bird explained, her eyes locking with his when she admitted, "I was going to give you what you needed to bring Falcone down. You wouldn't believe the intel I've gathered from working under Fish for years. I've got enough knowledge to bring the Falcone Crime Family to it's knees."

"Why are you speaking in past tense?" He asked, his voice rushed as he moved to edge of his seat.

"Because I have since realized I'm a part of the Falcone Crime Family." Bird breathed, shaking her head as she spoke.

The truth ran much deeper than that though.  
In the time she'd been in his apartment alone, she'd thought everything over. Listing out pros and cons of giving Jim the information he'd need to lock up not only Carmine Falcone, but other key players.

In truth, she was glad he'd taken so long to get home and she was able to now make a decision from a logic standpoint; instead of acting from emotion like she'd began to do.

"But if you can work with the police against Falcone-"

"Not gonna happen, Jim." Bird cut him off.

"So basically you came here to bleed on my furniture and to tell me that you know enough to bring Falcone down, but you're not going to tell me what the information is?" He listed out, his voice gruff when he added, "That's why you broke into my apartment?"

"Please." Bird complained, rolling her eyes and picking the opened bottle of scotch up from the next to the couch and swallowing down a large drink before choking out, "Your lock practically picked itself."

Immediately recognizing the bottle as one from his cabinet, Jim plucked it from her hands and started to tell her that if she wasn't going to help him like she'd claimed she'd came there to do, then she needed to get out.  
That was until he saw the look in her eyes and he gathered, "You're scared."

"I'm not scared." She stubbornly argued, reaching out for the bottle again, but he quickly moved it out of her reach and questioned, "Why are you really here?"

"Because I was pissed at Falcone and planned to help you take him down." Bird yelled out, her voice hurting her own ears and catching Jim off guard from the outburst. Rubbing her forehead she admitted in a much softer voice, "And I didn't really have anywhere else to go, okay? I don't want to be home and I can't let my brother see me like this, so Wayne Manor is out of the question. I don't really want Harvey to see me like this either and Zsasz already went there looking for me once, I don't want to him to get hurt."

Thinking of all the bridges she'd burned for the sake of her and Oswald's plan of taking over Gotham, and everyone they'd stepped on –on their way towards the top; Bird whispered, "As it turns out, I don't have many friends."

The formerly angry look on his face faded as he saw her turn from hardened criminal to something far more human and vulnerable than most of the people he'd crossed paths with in Gotham City.

This was always something that got under his skin when it came to Bird.

From the beginning he'd wanted to simply write her off as just another criminal living outside the law and making his job as a police officer ever more difficult. And every time he'd start to set that opinion in stone, something would happen and he'd see a different side of her.

Whether it was in her being protective over Bruce, or times like this when she revealed parts of herself that were usually hidden and he found himself wanting to help her.  
At times, strangely enough, he even felt a need to protect her.

He couldn't help but wonder if she did that purpose to get what she wanted. Either way and no matter how hard he tried to distance himself, he couldn't turn his back on her. Not when she was hurt and more scared than she'd ever admit.

"Forget it." She swallowed as she spoke, clearing her throat and letting out a bitter laugh, "It was stupid for me to come here."

He bit down on the side of his tongue and watched her starting to gather up the first-aid supplies, before finally asking, "I thought you didn't have anywhere else to go?"

"Suddenly nowhere sounds better than here."

The sharpness of her tongue cut deep and even though there was a part that wanted to just her go wandering off into the night, another part of him also remembered the times she'd stepped up and in all honesty, had saved his life.  
Though in those moment he was never fully sure of her intentions and felt like she'd only helped to hold it over his head or call in a favor later on.

"Wait." He breathed, defeat in heavy in his voice.

She either was too lost in her own head to hear him, or simply didn't feel like listening; she just continued to gather her belongings and the bags next to where he was still sitting on the coffee table.

"Bird."

It wasn't until he'd grabbed her arm to stop her that she finally looked back at him.

"Let's see that leg." He nodded towards her as he spoke.

Her jaw tensed and in her head she struggled between the stubborn and spiteful side of herself that wanted to ignore him and leave –knowing full well it would weigh on his conscience and the realization that she really did need his help and the hospital was on the other side of town.

Slowly she sat back down and silently moved her dress back out of the way, just far enough to show the wound to him and explained, "I got grazed by a bullet."

"Looks like you got a little more than just grazed." He argued, blowing out a breath as he spoke, "How long ago did this happen?"

"I thought I could get by without stitches if it just kept pressure on it long enough-"

"It looks bad."

"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious, Jim."

His blue eyes cut up to her face with the snappy tone she'd used, but he didn't reply as he stood up and headed to the bathroom to get some wet washcloths and a towel.

When he returned she was getting new cord back onto the curved and needle and he started to move the hem of her dress further to get a better a look at the wound. In response she froze for a second before grabbing onto his hand with lightning fast speed.

"Sorry." They both said in unison, with him remembering what she'd told him about her past, and her knowing he was only trying to help her.

The room fell silent for a few moments as she let go of his hand and folded her's in her lap and nodded for him to go on.

"I was just trying to-"

He began to say, but Bird held up a hand to silence him, "I know… it's just kind of a reflex." Letting out the breath she'd been holding, she said, "It's okay, just do what you need to before I lose any more blood."

Now there was a hesitation in his movements as he slowly moved her dress up away from the bullet wound and started to try and get the blood away so he could better see it.

"You know what you're doing, right?" Bird questioned, eyeing him from the corner of her eye without turning her head.

"I know what I'm doing." He assured, her as he fished through the bag on the table next to him for the bottle of rubbing alcohol. "I was in the army… sometimes the guy next to you is your only shot at surviving if you're wounded out there. I've stitched up more than a few people."

Nodding accepting the answer, she kept her eyes on the bottle of alcohol as he opened it. Pausing for a moment he reached over and grabbed up the bottle of scotch and handed it back to her, where she immediately took another large drink and prepared herself for the burn of the alcohol.  
Telling herself that it was better to feel the pain now then end up with a nasty infection later on.

As Jim got to work cleaning her leg, he watched her as she flinched now and then, but mostly sat stiffly on the couch while clutching tightly onto the glass bottle. He wasn't sure if she was trying to block out the pain, or was uncomfortable with him touching her.

"You wanna talk about it?" He asked, getting a sideways inquisitive glance from her, he added, "Whatever's on your mind."

"Not a fan of awkward silences?" She asked with a half-smile, before she lightly shrugged, "Can't we just turn the TV on or something?"

"It's broken."

The new few minutes felt like hours as time slowly ticked by, until she couldn't take it anymore herself and asked, "Do you ever just take a step back and look at your life and find yourself wondering how the hell you ended up here?"

"I know how I ended up here." Jim answered, "I did what I thought was the right thing and didn't kill Cobbelpot when I was told to."

Bird looked over at him and Jim cracked a smile as he looked at her and Bird let out a small laugh as she replied, "You have no idea how many life and death situations he's gotten us both into. Sometimes I can't believe we're still here…"

Her voice trailed off and he didn't miss the sudden sadness that filled her eyes just before she looked away from him and cleared her throat.

"What is it?" Jim asked her.

"I thought I was out." She managed to whisper with a somber laced tone and a failed attempt at a smile. "Fish betrayed Falcone and I was a part of it… to be honest I thought he was going to kill me, but Oswald bargained for my life. Guess I should feel lucky, huh?"

With a sigh, she took another drink and continued, "It was some sort of miracle that Falcone didn't order my death, and so when he let me live… it was stupid, I guess, but I really thought I was out. I mean knowing I'd betrayed him before, why on earth would he want me brought back in?"

"That's a good question." He quietly agreed, waiting for her to go on, if for no other reason than to keep her mind off the pain as he stitched up her leg.

"To punish me, I guess, or…"

"Or, what?" He questioned when she didn't resume her train of thought.

"I took Oswald to talk to Don Falcone last night and then this morning the old man brings me back in?"  
She'd hoped voicing it out loud would sound ridiculous and the thoughts that had been haunting her would pass, but it made just as much sense spoken aloud as it had bouncing around inside her head.

"When you surround yourself with those kind of people-"

"What kind of people, Jim?" Bird cut him off, "Criminals? Liars? The kind of people your parents warn you about when you're growing up?" Her eyebrows raised and she reminded him, "That's exactly the type of person I am."

"Are you trying to convince me of that, or yourself?" He countered, not looking up as he neared the end of trying to fix up her leg.

"Like I could convince you of anything different." She hissed in pain when he had to push the needle into her flesh again. "You only come around when you want something done that won't come back on you."

"That isn't true." He tried to argue, but when she turned her head and shot him a look, he had no choice but to face the truth and admit –even if it was only to himself, that she had a point.

"I'm trying to make a difference and we both know things work differently in Gotham."

When he pulled in a deep breath, Bird figured he was gearing up to launch into a long explanation of defending his actions and no doubt, make himself feel better.

"You don't have to justify yourself to me." She quickly said, "For better or worse…we all have reasons behind the things we do and I guess in the end, we all end up paying for our choices.

"That we do." He quietly agreed as he finished up with her leg, and gathered up the bloody rags to throw them in the wash.

Sitting in the same spot on the couch, Bird turned her head and followed him with her eyes as he went back into the kitchen and washed his hands before getting himself a beer and returning to the living room.

"You have options you know." He stated, sitting down in a chair and looking over at her as he took a drink from the cold bottle.

"I'm not giving up the goods on Falcone." She replied with an arched brow, earning a near smile from him, before he said, "I'm just saying that if you really do want out of organized crime, there are options and I could help you."

"It's cute you think you can protect me." She said in a teasing voice, letting him know she didn't believe a single word coming from his mouth. Before he got the chance to argue with her, Bird's phone rang and she pulled it out of her jacket pocket, and eyed the small exterior display screen before hitting a button on the side and silencing the call.

Feeling like she owed an explanation, Bird announced, "It was Harvey… we were supposed to be going out tonight, but…" Pulling in a breath, she motioned to her beat up face and said, "I need to figure out what to tell him before I see him again."

"How about the truth?" Jim asked, but it sounded more of a statement and she felt his eyes take on a judgmental hue as he watched her.

Blowing out a sigh, Bird turned the conversation back to what he'd been talking about earlier and said, "You're wrong, I don't really have options –not anymore. It's either do as Falcone tells me or charter some private jet to take me and everyone I even remotely care about to some place completely off the grid, where we'd never be found. Because they would come after me, and if I left, they'd start targeting everyone around me. I told you I know enough to bring everything down."

Turning her head and looking at him, she asked, "You ready to pack a bag and leave everything behind, cause I'm not so sure that I am."

He started to take another drink of his bottle of beer when her words finally sunk in and he asked, "You're saying I'd get a seat on the plane?"

"You realize if I'm gone, you're probably dead, right? I mean Falcone let you live because of me-"

"That's beside the point." He argued with her, "You said charter a plane for everyone you care about."

"I said remotely cared about."

"Still more than I thought you were capable of to begin with."

"Nice, Jim." Bird rolled her eyes and mumbled just loud enough for him to hear that he'd now lost his seat on the plane.

The room fell back into silence, that was only broken by the sound of another cellphone call. She started to reach for her jacket, but stopped when she realized it wasn't her ringtone.

Looking over to Jim, she watched as he stared at his phone for a few seconds before looking back to Bird and then ignoring the call. She waited for an explanation, after all, she'd given him one when her phone rang.

When he didn't offer the information up, she asked, "Well, who was it?"

"Lee." He admitted

"Who's Lee? Do I know him?" She questioned.

"Lee is short for Leslie and no, I doubt you know her." He replied.

Bird's eyes narrowed, her mind going back to how heartbroken Barbara was over him and she couldn't stop herself from asking, "Are you seeing her now?"

Looking a little startled from the question, Jim stammered, "I, uh, it's complicated…"

"That's not really an answer." She argued, leaving him even more confused as he questioned, "Why does it matter?"

Shrugging Bird changed the subject, looking around and figuring the answer was probably going to be an immediate no, she tried her best to sound friendly when she started to say, "It's kind of late and it's been a rough day and-"

Already understanding where her line of facts were heading, Jim added, "And still too shaken up to go back to your apartment alone?" Before she could argue with him that she wasn't scared of anything, he stood up and said, "You can stay on the couch for tonight, as long as you don't wake me up early tomorrow –it's my day off."

She was so surprised by the generous offer that she couldn't even manage to say anything as he got up and disappeared into the other room for a few minutes before returning with a pillow, blanket and a shirt to lend her to sleep in if she wanted to take her bloody dress off.

As he handed them over to her, she asked, "Are you kidding me?"

The confused look on his face, gave way to a lighthearted one as she held up the worn shirt he'd brought her with had faded lettering across the from that read 'G.C.P.D' and he gave her a shrug in response while he held back a laugh.

Looking back down to the shirt, she reminded him, "I'm not going to give you evidence about Falcone."

"I heard you the first five times." He called over his shoulder as he headed towards his room.

"I don't understand." Bird loudly said, getting him to stop and turn back to face her direction, "If you know I'm not going to help you…why are you letting me stay here?"

It was clear from the genuinely confused look on her face that she hadn't had many people or even friends who'd been kind to her without expecting something in return.

"Because it's late and you've had a really rough day." He answered, repeating back what she'd started to say to him earlier.

With that he went in his room and pulled the door shut behind him, leaving Bird still feeling a little unsure as to why he was helping her.

It was close to an hour later, after she'd washed up and gotten all the blood off of her and inspected her face and injuries, before she'd changed into the borrowed shirt and curled up on the couch for the night.

Closing her eyes, she readjusted her head against the pillow and for the first time in a quite a while found herself feeling like she might actually get some rest.  
Still her mind wasn't as ready to shut down as her body was, and as she laid there she realized Jim was more of a real friend than she'd been letting herself believe.

He didn't have to help her that night, he could have easily kicked her out and left her to fend for herself. After everything that had happened, that was what she'd expected from him.

In her life people weren't usually nice without wanting something in return and as nice as the feeling was, she didn't expect it to last long.

Probably within a few days she and Jim would be back to disagreeing about everything except the color of the sky –but for the night she was grateful to have a soft place to fall; even if it was a most unexpected one.

* * *

 **A/N – Thank you all for reading. I hope you liked the chapter. Anyone else really loving the scenes Bird has with Jim? :p**

 **Thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Miss E Charlotte, and Love. Fiction. 2016 to reviewing the last chapter!**


	35. Growing Pains

**XXXV**

 _"Pandora's Box could not be unopened, no one could return to Eden." ― Selena Kitt, Temptation_

* * *

Walking into his apartment, Harvey let out a tired sigh as he dropped his keys to the small table by his door and sat his briefcase against the wall.

As he turned on the light and started to walk into the living room, he jumped when he saw Bird sitting on his couch.

"You scared the-"  
He stopped mid-sentence and rushed over and sat down next to her, his brown eyes wide and terror filled as he saw how beaten up she was.

"What happened to you?" His voice was shaky as he spoke and his hands shook as he moved his arms, wanting to hold her, but he wasn't sure where to even touch her without causing pain.

"I'm sorry." Bird apologized, picking his spare key up from the coffee table and handing it to him as she said, "I just let myself in when I got here, and-"

Placing the key back in her hand, he folded her fingers around it and kept her hands in his, "Keep it… you can always come here."

"Thanks." She breathed, clutching the key tightly as she gently pulled from his touch and dropped the key into her purse that was sitting next to her.

"Please talk to me." His voice barely a whisper.

"I guess we are to the point where we should exchange keys, I'm mean we've already got so much stuff at each other's places." She said as she pulled her keys from her purse and with a weak laugh said, "I carry three copies of my key… so you can have one of these."

When she handed him the key, he took it and dropped it down to the coffee table without ever taking his eyes off of her.

"Is this why you cancelled on me last night?" He pushed, feeling like his heart could barely function enough to beat with the longer he looked at her, "I didn't want to worry you… but, it's going to be a while until I'm all healed up and we need to talk."

"Nothing good ever stems from a conversation started with those words." He softly said, as he reached down and pulled her hands into his own.

"I guess it's fitting then, because this isn't going to be a good conversation."  
Slowly, she turned on the couch and faced him. His heart stopped when he now could see her entire face up close and his eyes roamed over her swollen discolored skin, scanning over every single cut.

Pulling in a deep breath and trying to stay strong with seeing how worried he was, Bird started to explain, "I'm in a lot of trouble, Harvey."

His mouth hung open as he stared back at her, a thousand questions racing through his head and not a single one of them found their way to his tongue.

"You see, before when you kept talking about me getting away from the life I'd built for myself, I agreed –mainly because I didn't want to lose you. But, the truth was I wasn't sure if I wanted to stop… I can't explain it, but it's like the evil and darkness of Gotham is inside me and getting mixed up with the wrong people just came so naturally. It was so easy to fit in –I was good at being bad." Her eyes nervously met his before she looked around them and down to their connected hands.  
"There's always been a part of me that wanted to be a better person, a part of me that didn't really start to grow until I met you and it wasn't until recently that I really dared to dream about a better life. One where I don't have to chase sleeping pills down with alcohol in order to make it through the night because my demons won't let me sleep."

Swallowing hard, she raised a hand and brushed a stray tear from her cheek as she shook her head and let out a weak laugh, "I'm rambling."

"What are you saying?" He quietly asked, growing increasingly worried by the second.

"I'm saying that I've been struggling with myself over this for a long time –what my choice would be and which path I'd take." Bird said, looking back up to his face as another tear rolled down her cheek and she answered, "I've made up my mind… I want out of the hole I dug myself into. I want a life with you where we can discuss our jobs and not have to worry about you being implicated because of something I've done. I want to leave the bad parts and bad people in my life behind."

"Okay." He somehow found the strength to say, his voice wavering as he wasn't sure he wanted an answer to his next question, "Then why are you crying?"

Looking up to the ceiling she fought to keep her tears at bay, but the second she looked back to him her efforts were for nothing and a new wave rolled down her cheeks.

"Because I'm in a lot of trouble… I'm in deep with the Falcone Crime Family –a hell of a lot deeper than I let you believe." Pulling her hands from his she, wiped her cheeks and assured him, "It's nothing that I can't handle and I have a plan, but these next few months are going to be really, really hard… things are going to get a lot worse before they start getting better." Bird spoke in a broken voice with a deep-seeded fear that if he knew the things she was going to have to do, that he'd never be able to look at her the same.

"What's your plan?" He questioned, a bitter feeling nipping at the back of his tongue and the dinner he'd eaten at the office while finishing up some paperwork was threatening to come back up. It shook him to his core to see her in that state.

"I can't tell you." She admitted with a weak shrug.

"Starling-"

"Harvey, you asked me to trust you and I do… but now I need you to trust me too. I'm going to have to do a lot of things that I don't want to –terrible things, but it will be worth it in the end." She pleaded, her eyes wide as they bore into his.

"I don't like the sound of any of that… I do trust you, but I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're asking of me." He admitted, his eyes searching her face as he whispered, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you need to trust me, when I worked at Fish's club we'd agreed to not talk about my work –both because of your job, so you wouldn't have any direct knowledge of criminal activity and so that it wouldn't come between us. But you still pushed me for information-"

"Not for information, I pushed because I love you and when you'd come home and I knew something had happened you couldn't tell me about, it killed me inside. I can't just stand by and watch you slowly fall apart and pretend everything is fine." He argued with her, "I've seen some bad stuff, but there were nights I'd come over to check on you and the look in your eyes terrified me… and then for you to not even say two words to me. I can't take that-"

"Well you're going to have to, because I'm telling you right now things are going to get a lot worse." Her tone came out so cold it caught them both off guard, and he could start to feel her emotionally disconnecting and pulling away from him.

Reaching out he grabbed back onto her hands and tried to keep her there with him as he questioned, "Worse at the club?"

"Fish Mooney is gone." Bird answered with a shake of the head that caused her hair to fly wildly in her face, "I don't work in a nightclub anymore… I work directly under Carmine Falcone."

"What?" He exclaimed, "How did you go from-"

"Let's just say, I wasn't given much of a choice in the matter."

Shaking his head back and forth as if he were refusing to accept the information he stammered, "What kind of work, Starling?"

"I can't tell you."

"Yes, you can."

"I _won't_ tell you." Bird stated, an apologetic look in her brown eyes, "For both of our sakes, it's better that you stay in dark on that one."

Letting go of her hands, Harvey stood and rubbed his hands over his face and hair, completely undoing the neatly combed style it had been in. Once his hands lowered and he faced her, there was a fire in his eyes as he said, "No… if it's bad enough that you won't even tell me than you're not doing it. We will figure something out… we can leave Gotham for a while."

"Running away isn't going to fix anything, the only way this is getting fixed is for Falcone to no longer be ruling Gotham." She exclaimed standing up and walking towards him, but he seemed frantic as he started to pace back and forth in front of the windows at a fast speed.

"Then that's what I'll do, I'll round up every honest detective and lawyer I know –anyone who can help, and we'll dig up evidence and hit him with enough charges that he'll get locked up in Blackgate until the day he dies-"

"You try to attack him from a legal stand point, you and everyone you bring onto the case will be killed. Falcone runs Gotham, he has the police force and the courts in his pocket. He is untouchable."

Harvey looked even more frantic and his breathing grew erratic as he stopped pacing and faced her, his face and the tops of his ears taking on a red hue as he yelled, "Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Nothing!" She yelled back, pulling in a deep breath to calm herself she softly added, "There is nothing you can do… this is on me. The only way to bring Falcone down is to take his empire apart, piece-by-piece from the inside out and Harvey, think about it… I'm on the inside."

"You'll be putting yourself in too much danger." He complained, his jaw tense and she could have sworn his eyes were glossy with tears as he continued, "I don't know what you're planning on doing, but whatever it is… you can't. If Falcone thought for a second that you were plotting against him…" His voice cracked and he couldn't even bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Then I'll be killed." She nodded, "But where I'm sitting right now isn't much better."

Seeing the alarm in his eyes made her heart feel like it was crumbling into pieces, trying to ease his mind, Bird said confidently, "I know it's asking too much but, Harvey… I know I can do this and what I need you to do is believe it too."

"You're scared." He accused walking towards her, "You're the strongest person I know and right now you're terrified –and that scares the hell out of me, Starling."

"I could have just kept all of this to myself, but I'm really trying to be a better person here. I'm being as open and honest as I possibly can." Walking over to the window, she motioned out as she said, "You see that? You see the city? It's mine, my city… my home and I know how to navigate it. I know what I'm doing… and yeah Harvey, I'm scared but I have what it takes to do the things I need to do. I can handle this and come out on top."

Seeing he was more than reluctant to agree with her, she walked back over and dropped down on the couch. Looking up to where he was standing with pleading eyes, Bird whispered, "I don't like this anymore than you do, but there is no other option; I made this bed and now I don't have a choice but to lie in it."

"You just sat there and told me that you're going to have to do terrible things in the process…" He whispered back, his eyes glued to her as he spoke.

"I am." She breathed, with a lost look in her eyes. "I will do what I have to –to survive. You see goodness and light in me and I think it's in me somewhere too –but even so, I'm just built different. I might have some light, but in the darkness is where I thrive and all I have to do is stick things out a little bit longer."

Sitting down next to her, he stared at her before he ran his tongue over his now cotton dry lips as he questioned, "When it's all said and done… these bad things you're talking about –are you going to be able to come back from that?"

"I'm capable of more than you think." She simply answered in a soft voice as she kicked her shoes off and scooted back onto the couch, pulling her legs up in front of her.

Scooting back beside her, Harvey wrapped an arm around her and held her to his side as she gently nestled her head into the crook of his neck and closed her eyes. His arm tightened around her, and he tried to find solace in knowing that for the moment she was there with him and safe –but there was a gnawing feeling in his stomach and as much as he wanted to stay like that forever, he knew time waits for no one. Eventually the night would end and the sunrise would bring a new day –only now he felt like there was nothing but darkness ahead.

 **~(Days later)~**

Bird pulled the curtain back that was over a floor to ceiling window looking into a holding room on the top floor of Falcone's Mansion. Blankly, she stared in as she watched the hired dominatrix securing a bit gag to Judge Turnbull's mouth –the modified version went around the back of his neck with a place on the front to secure a lock so the person gagged wouldn't be able to remove it without a key. He'd been stripped down to his white undershirt, socks and print boxers.

Still starting to come out of the effect from the drugs that Bird had injected him with late the night before, he couldn't do anything to defend himself as he rolled around the floor trying to get away from the woman, but she laughed and secured the lock under his chin.

His cries echoed through the room, effortlessly seeping through the glass window as he clutched onto the sides of the bit gag.

Bird tried to block out the sound and looked away from him to the see the much younger man he'd been out with at the time was still under the effects of the drugs lying completely naked on the floor.

The prior day had been her first day working alongside Victor Zsasz and they'd been handed the task of kidnapping Chief Judge Stanley Turnbull -who was known for being both honest and throwing the book at criminals. He'd put away several high rollers of Gotham's various crime rings.

When they weren't able to get him alone for the abduction, they'd tailed him to an underground gay club where he'd met up with a young man –probably less than half his age. She'd spent nearly three hours sitting in a silent car with Victor, until they resurfaced and Bird did as she was instructed and emptied a syringe of sedative into the judges neck.

When she'd turned around she'd seen that Victor had done the same to the judges companion and when she pointed out that they'd only been told to bring Turnbull in –Victor replied with a twisted smile, " _The more the merrier_."

Shaking her head back and forth she watched as the woman in the room readjusted the video camera to aim on the floor where the judge was lying, before she flipped him onto his stomach and used a long leather whip to lash him across the back –with a cry of pain he tried to crawl away but she stopped him by applying force to his back with the stiletto heel of her thigh high leather boots.

"I thought you'd left with Victor."

Looking over her shoulder Bird saw Don Falcone and said, "We're leaving soon… currently he's off doing…" With a shrug and realization that he hadn't told her what he needed to do she finished, "Victor Zsasz things, I guess."

"Nice work on bringing Turnbull in." He said nodding into the room where she'd been watching the horror show take place.

"If he's done something bad enough for you to order this done to him, why not just have us kill him?" She asked, looking back through the window.

"That's a terribly short-sighted ideation." He commented, before asking, "Are you feeling guilt for bringing him here for this?"

Quietly, she shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest.

When he wasn't met with an answer Falcone asked, "And how would you feel if I told you that this is a piece of the puzzle to keep your friend alive?"

"What are you talking about?" Bird asked, turning to face the crime boss.

"Cobblepot." He explained, "You see, I'm going to have to make a deal with Maroni to keep him from going after Oswald for revenge. Judge Turnbull is a part of that, he's put away several of Maroni's close associates and-"

"Why not just put his head in a box and hand deliver it to Maroni, then?" Bird questioned.

"I could." He nodded, "But this way, we get another high-powered member of the legal system under our sway. Maroni and I can both hold this tape over his head and he'll have no choice but to comply with our demands –something I'm sure Salvatore will be grateful for in not only short-term but long term."

Watching the young brunette and picking up on the expression on her face he asked, "Does that ease your mind?"

"Yes." She admitted. If this would keep Oswald safe and alive then it was well worth it. She'd do nearly anything to ensure her best friend would live to see another day.

"All because it keeps someone you care about safe?"

Bird nodded, letting out a heavy breath as she said, "I don't pretend to be a saint, Don Falcone. I've done a lot of bad stuff in my life, but I had a reason for at least ninety percent of it. Sure, I can kill someone without giving it much though in the heat of the moment –but it makes it a lot easier to sleep at night if I knew I put that person down for a good reason."

"Business is business." He stated, reaching up and pulling the dark curtain back over the window as he added, "It's a hard line to draw, I agree… but once you take feeling and emotion out of a situation, it's much easier to swallow the pill."

"What if I can't look at everything as strictly business?" Bird asked him.

"You will, soon enough and as time passes it will get easier. Your time put into working with Victor will see to that." Laying a hand on her shoulder he added, "The most important lessons in life are the hardest ones to learn."

With that he walked away and left her alone in the upstairs hallway, where she lingered for several more minutes and curiosity got the best of her on her way towards the stairs and she peeked behind the other curtains to see who else Falcone was planning on blackmailing into submission.

Once she finally started down the large, stone spiral staircase she heard voices which she quickly identified as Don Maroni and Don Falcone; quietly she crept further down and ducked down hoping they wouldn't see her as she watched them.

"Granted, Penguin's a stone cold money maker –but how come you're laying all this grease on me to keep him alive?" Maroni asked, "What's your angle?"

"He's clever and I like to have a clever man beside me who knows his place in life." Falcone answered.

Bird's eyebrows furrowed as she whispered to herself, "Place in life?"

"You know how that goes." Falcone continued, gesturing with his hand, "He's clever enough to know that a freakish little man like him is never going to be the boss."

The confusion on her face turned to anger and with narrowed eyes she thought to herself that soon enough Falcone would see –on his death bed he'd realized he'd been played for a fool for a much longer time than he could have guessed. That Oswald was smart, clever and at times far more diabolical than any of them could have imagined.

"Fair enough." Maroni agreed, "So I'm just supposed to give you a prime asset like that and you're what? Going to being out some nice old cigars?"

"Of course I'll show my gratitude to you in a more formal way-"

"This is not a money thing. This is personal." Maroni argued.

"I understand." Falcone conceded, "Do you know Chief Judge Stanley Turnbull?"

"Of course. He's the meanest son of a mother bitch in the courthouse." Maroni's voice raised from anger as he spoke.

"Yes, a hard and righteous man; powerful too." Falcone said, but Maroni barely gave him time to talk as he nodded, "Put away some good friends of mine."

Giving it a little thought, Maroni finally said, "You bring me his ugly head and say… two-hundred grand and you got a deal –I won't touch Penguin."

"Oh." Falcone said with a chuckle, "I'll give you a better deal than his head." Slapping a hand against Maroni's back he said, "But first, let's see to those Castros."  
Bird watched as Falcone led Maroni down a hallway where they could further discuss business over drinks and a cigar.

Blowing out a breath she laid her head against the cold metal railing and gave the men some time to be squared away before she planned on going the rest of the way downstairs –she didn't want to be caught spying on anyone.

"Who are we watching?"

Internally she jumped, but out on the outside didn't even flinch as she sighed and turned her head to see Victor was now crouched down beside her.

"What is wrong with you?" She muttered under her breath as she stood up and faced him with her arms crossed over her chest.

Standing to his own feet he smiled with a devilish look in his dark eyes as he reminded her, "We've got work to do."

 **~(The next day)~**

Bird hugged her jacket tightly around herself as she carefully walked up a large leaf covered hill in the woods outside of Wayne Manor. The house had been empty when she got there and once she realized the date of the day, she knew it was the date that her dad and brother would always hike to the top of the tallest hill and camp out so they could watch the sunrise.

She'd instantly felt guilty and wished she'd have remembered days ago so she could have offered to go with her brother if he wanted her to, but her conscience was slightly eased thinking that since the house was empty Alfred must have gone with him.

It was nearly dark by the time she trekked up the side of the correct hill after she'd gotten turned around a few times and gotten completely off the usual path taken. She'd stopped going along on the hikes when she was still pretty young, she'd somehow gotten it into her head that hiking wasn't cool and refused to keep up the tradition.

"Alfred, where's Bruce?" She questioned when she found him but didn't see any trace of her brother.

"On his way up." He said nodding towards the edge of the hill as he added, "Got himself into a bit of a mess, it seems."

As she walked closer to sit with him near the small fire he'd built, his eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Good god! What the bloody hell happened to you?"

When she turned her face away from him, he tried to make light of the matter as he joked, "I should hope you at least won the scuffle?"

"Nope." She sighed, before asking, "Why are you sitting here instead of helping Bruce?"

"He got himself into a bother, Lady Wayne. He'll make it up here, it will just take him a while and he'll be better for it." Alfred replied, and she nodded in agreement. Seeing he could get himself out of trouble would be a good, character building lesson for her little brother –even if it was a painful one.

"We weren't expecting you tonight." He said after a while of silence passed.

"Yeah… I just…" Her voice trailed off and she gave a lazy shrug, "I just thought I should come by and see Bruce. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to drop by over the next couple of months."

Bird thought back to the events of the last few days as she stared off into the distance, until she finally said, "I'm glad you're here though, I was wondering if you could gather some boxes for me soon."

Pulling down the sleeves on his sweater he asked, "Are you planning a move?"

"No, I love my apartment." She smiled, "I was just thinking it was about time I clean my room out at Wayne Manor. Since mom and dad died, Bruce doesn't want to go through their room or decide what to keep and what to throw away and I just…" Swallowing hard she continued, "If something were to happen to me than I don't want him to have another room of stuff it would be too painful for him to go through."

A concerned look took over his features in the orange glow of the fire as he turned sideways and stared at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something else or explain her reasoning further but when she made no further attempt he pointed out, "That room has been exactly the same since you moved out, as I recall you even gave me strict orders to dust around the contents and not move a single thing. Why are you all of a sudden in a hurry to clean it out? Does this have anything to do with the number someone did to your face?"

"No." She lied, offering a smile and trying to sell the lie –but the truth was she was so sick of having to lie to everyone around her. She didn't feel like she had the energy to keep everything straight. "I just think that it's never too early to get ones affairs in order."

"Ones affairs?" He repeated back with a raised voice, "Lady Wayne, you are going on twenty years of age. Yes, I would say that is far too early to be planning for what's to come when you're gone. Now, go on, tell me what's happened."

"It's nothing in particular –more of a result of everything from these last few years coming to a head." Her eyes glistened in the dancing flames from the lighting as she gave a half-smile and said, "You never come right out and say it –but you've kept tabs; you know since I was a teenager I've been in one mess after another and lately I've been feeling pretty mortal."

Blinking back tears she fussed with the decorative strap on her boots as she sat with her legs out in front of her. Picking up a brown leaf from the ground, she started to shred it into small pieces and cleared her throat as she began, "We need to talk, there's some things I need to speak to you about without my brother being there to hear it."

"Frankly, I'm not caring much for this conversation." He quietly said, not taking his eyes off of her as she picked up another leaf to destroy.

"That makes two of us, but I have to get this out and there's no time like the present." With a deep breath, she fought to keep her voice low and steady as she began to explain, "There's a locked single drawer filing cabinet sitting at the back of my closet behind everything –it's where I keep any important papers or financial documents; the key to it is taped up against the back of my freezer. You'll probably have to dig through a hundred popsicles and freezer burnt food, but I promise you the key is there."

"Lady Wayne-"

"I've also got all the documents in order for all of the money in my accounts and my shares in Wayne Enterprises to go to Bruce. I'm not sure what all is going on inside of that company, but I wanted to make sure that if I die my stakes in the company don't end up in the wrong hands. With our combined shares, Bruce will have fifty-one percent of the shares and will retain control and have the deciding vote-"

"Lady Wayne, I really don't think-"

"This is important Alfred!" She unintentionally raised her voice at him. With an apologetic look she said, "My set of those documents are in my filing cabinet I told you about, but just in case there's a problem, Harvey Dent has a set of copies filed away so he should be able to help from a legal standpoint. He's the only lawyer I trust, and even though it's out of his usual scope of practice I'll make sure anything legal wise will go through him."

After pulling in another deep breath she continued, "Also, I want to be cremated. The idea of just rotting away underground makes me feel deathly ill, so I'd rather be reduced to ashes. If Bruce wants to have a service and my ashes buried, so there's a place he can go visit that's fine." Her forehead lined as she breathed, "I'll write all of this out for you of course, but I still thought it was better to get this out in the open just in case. Oh, and most importantly-"

"Starling!" He yelled, catching her off guard. She couldn't remember him ever addressing her by her first name before, seeing he'd startled her into an abrupt silence he said, "I'm going to have to stop you here, you see, this conversation is making _me_ feel deathly ill and I would much rather hear about how I can help you out of your current predicament, then be plotting for a grim future."

"I'm probably just over-reacting." She chuckled with a smile that didn't come close to reaching her eyes, "But on the off chance that I don't, this last part is really important –the most important of all. If something ends up happening to me, no matter what it looks like –or how it goes down… Bruce is going to learn things about me and probably have a lot of questions about the side of my life I've tried to keep hidden from him."

With glossy eyes and an uncomfortable feeling in her throat, she pushed though and finished, "You need to be honest with him. Tell him that the bad stuff is true, and that it was my own doing. That it was no one's fault, but my own. I don't want him obsessing over it, you know? Like the way he does over our parents murders. I just want him to let go and move on, because I promise you –when it comes to me the deeper he digs and more layers that get pulled back, all he's going to find is more darkness. Finally, you need to tell him that even though I've done deplorable things, that in the end I was trying to turn things around."  
Finally getting the strength to look at him she stated, "Because I am trying to fix things."

Bird watched as he stared straightforward into the fire –not giving any indication that he'd heard her.

"Alfred, did you hear me?"

"Every word." He replied, his face lined with confusion as he finally glanced back to her, "Doesn't matter, though. I imagine you'll still be here long after I'm gone."

"You never know." She shrugged.

"I don't know what you've gotten yourself into, and your hesitance to share is unsettling –equally as much as you planning for the end like it will happen tomorrow. So, I'll tell you this; whatever battle it is that you're preparing for –don't you ever lose sight of who you are. You are a fighter, Lady Wayne –a warrior." Adjusting the way he was sitting on the ground, he added, "You are a Wayne."

"I was adopted-" She began to argue, but he quickly shushed her, "You may not have entered this world a Wayne, but when you leave it… _many, many years down the road_ ; you'll be leaving as a Wayne, and a damn fine one at that."

His words brought a smile to her lips and she turned her face back towards the fire as the pair now waited in silence for Bruce to join them.

It wasn't much later that they heard leaves rustling and with several loud determination filled noises, they watched as a pair of hands grasped onto a large exposed tree root and moments later Bruce pulled himself up onto the hill. Laying on his stomach, he looked up at them with a shocked expression.

"Hello there, Master Bruce." Alfred greeted, "Well you certainly took your time, what'd you do? Pop off for a pie and a pint on the way up, did you?"

His hair was damp with sweat and stuck to his forehead as he raised up further and loudly asked, "How long have you been here?"

"About an hour." Bird guessed, nodding in agreement with Alfred as he said, "Just when you started climbing that pretty nasty hill."

With a gasp Bruce stared between them, utter shock and disbelief written all over his tired, dirt stained face.

"Well thanks for your help!" He called out, looking to be on the verge of tears and complete exhaustion.

"Well I'm proud of you." Bird announced, standing up and walking over to him as she helped him up to his feet and over to where he could sit by the fire between herself and Alfred.

"You got yourself down there." Alfred pointed out, taking a drink from the lid of the thermos after he spoke and looked beside him as he questioned, "You alright?"

"I'm cold." Bruce sniffled, "And tired and my ankle's sprained… I just want to go home."

"You want to go home? Or do you want to wait and watch the sunrise… like you did with your dad?" Alfred asked, rubbing a hand over his back.

Blinking to dry up the tears he'd had in his eyes he replied, "Well, Alfred you can only stay if you think you can handle it."

"If I can handle, it? Mate, this place is positively cushy compared to some of the places I've slept in." Refilling the thermos lid, he held it out to Bruce and offered with a loving smile, "Cup of tea, you cheeky monkey?"

With a newfound smile of his own, Bruce gladly accepted the cup and let out a pained noise when Bird leaned forward to inspect his ankle and announced, "Yeah, it's sprained alright."

"I told you!" He whined, reaching down and trying to knock her hands away from him.

"But you did great with the makeshift splint." She beamed, inspecting the splint he'd created from two sticks and a couple straps off of his backpack. With a small smile, he nodded, feeling pride and accomplishment that he'd been able to fend for himself in the middle of the woods alone. That no matter how tired he was or how much it hurt, he'd kept pushing through and could now say he'd done it all by himself.

The trio sat in silence, listing to the crackling fire and sounds of nature around them before Bruce quietly asked, "If I asked what happened to your face, would you tell me?"  
So many times he'd seen his sister injured in one way or another, yet every time he asked what happened she'd never give him an answer.

"All I'll say that if you think I look bad, you should see the other guy." She tried to joke, but could see from the look on his face that he didn't find it amusing at all.

Offering him a small smile she nodded towards the hill he'd managed to climb up with his sprained ankle as she said, "Sometimes the most important lessons in life are the hardest ones to learn."

"That isn't an answer." He argued, taking another drink of the warm tea which he nearly choked on when Bird said, "I know I'm not the easiest person to be around and that I haven't always shown it –I'm sure trying to grow up with me as your big sister was a nightmare… but you should know that no matter what happens, I love you."

His eyes were wide as he stared at her, he couldn't remember the last time he'd heard her say that.

"What's wrong?" He questioned, cringing as he tried to readjust to get a better look at her.

"Nothing's wrong." She smiled, "I just wanted to see you today and let you know how much you mean to me and that I'm sorry for all the crap I used to do."

Looking even more alarmed than before, Bruce asked in an airy tone, "You hiked all the way through the woods to tell me that?"

"I just wanted you to know. In case I don't get the chance-"

"Lady Wayne!" Alfred cut her off, as he popped the other cup off the double ended thermos and poured out some more tea to pass to her as he suggested, "Perhaps you should drink some tea then, huh?"

Taking the cup she shot him a look before she said, "As I was trying to say… I'm going to be pretty busy with work for the next few months and I'm not sure how often I'll be able to come around –so I just wanted to pop in while I had the chance."

Bruce looked back down to his own cup of tea with a still confused expression as he quietly said, "I suppose it's always good to let those around you know how much you care."

Several minutes passed, and Bruce looked over to Alfred who was poking the small fire with a stick to move the burning pieces of wood around and then back to his sister who was inspecting a smooth rock she'd found near them and a smile smell fell over his face.

He'd started to hike determined to keep the family tradition alive that he'd shared with his father, but once he came across the rock piles that they'd add a new one to each year, he felt hopeless and so angry that his parents had been taken from him –so angry that he'd thrown all of the collected rocks around in a fit of rage.  
Then after tumbling down a hill and hurting his ankle, he started to wish he'd never ventured out on the hike.  
After all, what good is a tradition if you don't have anyone to share it with –but as he looked between the two people left in his family he felt lucky to have them there with him and it gave him the hope that maybe new traditions could feel just as special as old ones.

"I love you too." He quietly said, looking over to his sister who was still intently inspecting the rock in her hands.

As she looked over at him he added, "And you don't need to apologize –I think you make a really great older sister."

With a smile, she dropped the rock she'd been looking at and leaned over, wrapping her younger brother in a tight side-hug as she pulled in a breath of the crisp night air, knowing that watching the sunrise with them in the morning would be a treasured memory to help her through the darkness that seemed to be closing in.

* * *

 **A/N - Thanks so much for reading. I hope you all liked the chapter. It was a pretty emotional one to write, so much is happening now.**

 **I want to thank SwingingOnAStar and Love. Fiction. 2016 for reviewing the last chapter. ^_^**


	36. Where the Devil Won't Go

**XXXVI**

 _Bruised my knees getting down to pray._  
 _Won't repent 'til my judgement day._  
 _It's a mean world that I've known._  
 _Never got no good doing what I'm told._  
 _It's a mean world that I've known._  
 _Now you'll find me where the devil don't go. - Elle King, Where the Devil Won't Go_

* * *

"Well?" Bird asked, as she nervously sat on the edge of the chair and fidgeted with the sleeve of her jacket, "What do you think?"

"I think…" Harvey breathed resting his elbows on his desk and rubbing his eyes, "That right now I wish I was one of those lawyers who kept a bottle in their desk drawer."

Her eyes fell to all of the final will and estate documents on his desk and with an apologetic look she said, "I know this isn't what you wanted to spend your lunch break doing, but I had all of these papers drawn up and I wanted you to look over them –you're the only one I trust."

"I can't do this." He finally sighed, tucking the documents back into the thick navy blue folder and roughly closing it.

"I need you to-"

"I have court in less than an hour. I need to be able to focus during the trail and not sitting there paralyzed from the thoughts of losing you." He argued.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, "It's just that my dad had everything all in order, you know? He'd made plans and took steps to make sure everything was done just as he wanted and I'm trying to follow his footsteps. I need to know if everything on these papers are exactly how I want, so that I can leave them with Alfred." Her eyes dropped to the floor as she said, "Just a side note; I told him if something happened to me that you've got copies of the papers for my shares in my father's company to go to my brother."

When he sat completely silent and didn't say anything or even make a movement, she asked, "Harvey?"

"What the hell happened?" He demanded to know, "Last week you were asking me to trust you and saying things were going to get worse, but that in the end it would all be okay –and now you show up here with estate planning papers and talking to me about this like we're discussing where to have dinner!"

"Nothing happened." Bird exclaimed, "I just… I'll be able to sleep a lot better knowing everything is in order."

"Yeah, well, you'll be the only one able to sleep." He muttered.

"Once I know everything is okay and these papers are filed away, we never have to talk about it again –I promise and then things can go back to normal." She was too quick to say, and he asked, "Normal? Starling, I don't even know what normal is anymore.

"Harvey, please." She whispered, her eyes and tone pleaded with him for both his understanding and help.

Lowering his head he let out a sigh of defeat before opening the folder back up and picking the first few pages up. Trying to pretend like he was examining legal documents for someone he didn't know and dearly love. He read over them and laid them to the side with a nod of approval.

As he picked up the next one his eyebrows lowered and she asked, "What's wrong?"

"Why am I listed on here?" He asked, reading further as he said, "It says you're leaving me –whoa… that is…" His eyes darted back to her, "A lot of money. I think someone made a mistake."

"It's not a mistake." Bird replied, "If something were to happen to me, I want to make sure you're going to be okay. That you can pick up and leave Gotham and start somewhere fresh and not have to worry-"

"I don't want it." He cut her off with a rough voice, "I want you, and I want you alive. So instead of sitting here looking over these papers, let's just get out of Gotham."

"Right now?" She remarked with raised eyebrows.

"Right now." He agreed.

"And what about your court case?" She reminded him, fighting a smile as she spoke.

Standing up he started to gather the papers as he muttered, "Screw the case."

"Harvey!" Bird exclaimed, as she got up from her seat and walked around the desk, grabbing onto his hands to stop him as she said, "You're over-reacting… and besides leaving won't change anything. I have to be here, I have to see this through."

"I'm not over-reacting, I don't want this!" He yelled holding the folder up in the air, "If I lost you, no amount of money on this earth would help me."

"Why are you yelling at me?" Her own voice was raised, but nowhere near the level to which his had reached, "Because you're standing here talking to me like your fate has already been sealed and that you're somehow perfectly fine with that when to me it feels like the end of the goddamn world."

Bird opened her mouth to tell him how she wasn't nearly as fine with it all as she seemed, but before she got the chance there was a brief knock on his closed office door as one of his co-workers opened it and said, "Sorry to interrupt, Dent… but do you have those case files on-"

"Not now!" He yelled, seeing the look of alarm on the man's face, Harvey took a shallow breath and lowered his volume; though his tone didn't get any friendlier, he added, "I'm in the middle of something right now."

"Oh, uhh… okay." He stammered, stepping back and closing the door as he left.

Leaning down Harvey rested his hands against the desk and tried to get a grip on his anger, and Bird looked down placing a hand on top of his as she said in a calm voice, "It does bother me, okay? The idea of it all scares me and it's not like I'm giving in or giving up, but knowing that the things are in order for the people I love the most just makes me feel better."  
"I know this is hard and I'm sorry… you're the only one who's word I trust when it comes to legality matters, but I understand. This is a lot to ask and really hard on you, so it's alright. I'll find someone else to go over it with me."

Leaning over she kissed his cheek and picked the folder up from the desk, as she turned to leave he took hold of her hand and pulled her back to him. With an apologetic look on his face he pulled the folder from her hand and laid it back down on his desk.

"You don't have to-" Bird started to say.

"I want to." Harvey cut her off, before he took a ragged breath and rested his forehead against hers. "Actually, I don't want to… but I will, for you."

Raising back up he caught the fearful look in her eyes she'd been trying to hide; now he could see it really wasn't nearly as easy for her as she pretending it was. She was trying to be strong and the least he could do was be there; be strong with her. He pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to him.

 **~()~**

"What happened?" Oswald asked, watching as Bird turned to shut her apartment door behind him.

"You didn't hear?" She questioned, with raised eyebrows and a disbelieving expression.

When he continued to stare at her, his eyes looking over her injured, but healing face; she didn't dwell on the last week and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to bring you this, in person." He answered, somehow managing to pull his eyes from her wounded state and placed an invitation for the opening night of the club in her hand.

Looking down she ran her fingers over the black card, it was simple and elegant. The expensive paper had a nice weight to it with a glossy sheen over the silver color script that read _Oswald's._

Opening the card up she saw it was an announcement for the club's reopening under his care.

"Congratulations." She said with a soft smile, as she folded it shut and crossed the room, propping it open on the top shelf of her bookcase.

Walking over to her, he saw she'd placed it next to a framed picture of her and Harvey and on the other side of it was a wilted and dying purple flower.

"You'll be in attendance?" Oswald asked, trying to look at her, but his eyes kept being pulled back to the photo of the couple.

"I'll try." She nodded, "I may have to work that night, I'm not sure yet."

"Work?" He questioned, his head cocking to the side as he questioned, "What work?"

"You really have no idea do you?" She realized, her head lowering as she pulled in a breath and looked back to him, "The morning after I dropped you off at Falcone's mansion when Maroni had tried to killed you –the old man brought me back in. He decided the crime family needed growing numbers apparently… he's making me work with Victor."

"Zsasz?" Oswald nearly shouted at her, unable to stand still anymore he seemed unsteady on his feet from the newly learned news. He was well aware of Victor Zsasz's well-earned reputation and in the few encounters he'd had with him, had spent every second all too aware of how dangerous the assassin was.

"Yeah." Bird nodded, shrugging and trying to make herself feel better as she said, "It's not so bad I guess. Victor just creeps me out sometimes. Somedays he won't speak to me and other times he seems… I can't even explain it, he's the strangest man I've ever met."  
With a shrug she thought back to her fight with him and working at his side as she conceded, "He's skilled though, no wonder Falcone keeps him so close."

Oswald stared back at her with his mouth agape, he wasn't sure what was more shocking –knowing that Falcone was trying to convert Bird into an assassin, or the fact that she thought working with Zsasz wasn't so bad.

"I'll try to make it to the opening night though-"

"I will fix this, Bird." He cut her off, "I will speak to Don Falcone myself and let him how much of an asset you were at the nightclub-" He promised, getting cut off when she shook her head back and forth, "It won't make a difference. He's punishing me for the Liza situation, and he knows we're close –forcing me to work with a friend wouldn't be punishment."

Walking past him back across her living room, Bird thought out loud, "Hardly seems fair, right? You've been manipulating the hell out of everyone and you wind up with a shiny new club. One of my betrayals comes to light and I have to work with Victor."  
Running a hand through her hair she sighed with a shrug, "Nature of the beast, I suppose."

"If you'll just allow me to speak with-" Oswald tried to persuade her, but Bird shook her head back and forth.

"We'll stick to the plan. Start a gang war in Gotham and let Maroni and Falcone fight it out lose a lot of their men in the process, their numbers dwindle and funds run low –the citizens will start turning against them and then we'll strike at the right moment and pull the city out from under them." Bird said, a confidence in her tone and a fire of determination in her eyes –something he hadn't seen for quite a while.

"Yes." He agreed, pointed smile spreading over his lips, "Yes, we will."

 **~( A few days later)~**

After ignoring a phone call from her younger brother, Bird was sitting on her couch alone in her apartment. She was supposed to see Harvey that night, but ended up having to cancel on him when orders came down from Falcone that she and Victor had a job that evening.

Picking up the bottle of pain pills from her coffee table she poured several out into her hand, before popping them into her mouth and chasing them down with the last of her bottle of beer.

Adding the bottle to the steadily growing collection on top of, and on the floor beside her coffee table, she stood up and started to head for the kitchen to grab another –until there was a knock at her door.

Letting out a sigh she, turned and headed over to see who it was, crossing her fingers at her side and hoping it wasn't Harvey as she went.

She'd tried to just send him a text to say she couldn't see him that night, but he'd immediately called her after she'd sent it. From the moment she said hello, he was worried by her tone of voice, he'd started asking questions that she couldn't –or more so wouldn't answer.

After looking through her peephole, she paused for a moment before finally opening the door and greeting in a flat tone, "Jim?"

"Bird." He greeted back, waiting for her to invite him, but instead she turned and walked over to sit on her couch –leaving her door open.

Shaking his head Jim walked in and closed the door behind him, as he turned back to explain why he was there, the sight he was met with stopped him in his tracks.

There were empty beer bottles everywhere, her coffee table was littered with take-out trash and weapons, not to mention some bottles of pills sitting out in plain sight.  
Bird was dressed in a pair of pajama pants and a dark hooded sweat shirt that was clearly a few sizes too big on her. Her hair was down and didn't appear to have been brushed that day.

"What do you want?" She asked when he stopped short of giving an explanation for his visit, "Let me guess, you need a favor?"

"No." Jim gruffly answered. Clearing his throat, and finding a friendlier tone of voice he asked, "How are you?"

With a shrug being the only answer he got from her, he walked over and moved a gun out of one of her chairs so that he could sit down and laid it down on the coffee table and commented, "That's quite a bit of firepower you've got there." He eyed her for a bit before guessing, "This have anything to do with Falcone bringing you back in?"

"Oh, I don't know Jim… are you asking as a _friend_ or Gotham's Hero Cop?"

When she saw his forehead line and a genuine look of confusion fall over his face, she pulled in a breath and added, "I know you probably think because I came to you for help before, that I owe you some sort of explanation –but I think with all the times I saved your life, we can just call it even, right?"

"Nygma told me you came by the station looking for me yesterday. Said you seemed pretty out of it." Jim finally said, but before he could get much else out, Bird's expression changed and she questioned, "No… wasn't I there today?"

Rubbing her forehead she realized she'd lost some time again, though at the current moment she was too exhausted to be distressed from the news.

"No… it was yesterday." He stated, before giving her a harsh look and commenting, "Might be easier to keep your days straight if everything wasn't a blur." He motioned to the alcohol bottles as he spoke and started to reach out to see exactly what kind of pills she'd been taking, but even in her hazy state her reflexes were unmatched and she slapped his hand away in midair.

"Don't you dare judge me, Jim Gordon." Bird snapped, overcome with anger. Closing her eyes and pulling in a breath, she arched a brow, "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and you're not near as perfect as you get everyone to think you are."

"I'm not judging." Jim argued, holding his hands up in surrender and knowing that if she stayed mad it would be impossible to talk to her and he had a feeling something must be really wrong for her to have showed up at his work.

"Liar." She mumbled under her breath.

Blowing out an annoyed breath, he asked, "What did you come by the station for?"

Running her tongue over her bottom lip, Bird avoided his eyes and started to pick at the sleeve over her hoodie.

When she didn't answer, Jim added, "I saw you coming out of a building just outside of the narrows with Victor Zsasz earlier this week."

"So?"

"So…" He sighed, "Wasn't it just a couple weeks that he tried to kill you?"

"He wasn't trying to kill me, he was just supposed to bring me to Falcone." She reminded him.

"Either way, why were you with him?" Jim pried. The night she'd ended up in his apartment scared to death was still fresh in his mind, and he recalled exactly how distressed she seemed by the news that Falcone was bringing her back in.  
Now, after seeing her with Zsasz, Jim started to wonder exactly what sort of work she'd been brought back into the crime family for.

"Maybe he's a friend." She stubbornly shrugged, not making eye contact with him as she spoke.

"All your friends beat you to a blood pulp?" His tongue sharply carved every word of the question.

It was obvious that she was lying about so many things to him now, something that easily got under his skin. As if that wasn't insulting enough –she wasn't even trying to hide it.

"You'd really be surprised, Jim."

"What is that supposed to mean?" He questioned.

"Nothing." She waved a dismissive hand through the air, "I went to the station to talk to you, I'm trying to get things in order and-"

"In order for what?"

"For when I die."

The pair stared at each other for several seconds, until he opened his mouth, but knowing what he was about to say, Bird cut him off.

"It's not like I'm expecting to be killed tomorrow or anything, but we both know the kind of life I live and I've screwed a lot of people over and burnt a lot of bridges and... I just think it's good to be prepared, you know –just in case."

"I think there's a lot more that you're not telling me." He commented, "But, go on."

Swallowing hard she somehow managed a smile and softly said, "My brother is this amazing person, you know? He's so mature for his age and annoyingly smart, he's such a genuine person –genuinely nice and caring and it's honestly a little tragic, because people are often unkind to him. He just… he's not like other kids his age and even being such a great person, he has a lot of trouble relating to other people. He doesn't really have any friends –in fact, all he has is me and Alfred."

"And me." Jim added.

"I know that you've got your own life and you're busy and under no obligation to do so, but If something happens to me. Maybe you could make it a point to stop by Wayne Manor more, you know… just sort of keep an eye on him –without him knowing that's what you're doing?"

Slowly Jim nodded, "That goes without asking." He assured her.

"Thanks." She whispered, "I thought you would, it's just that hearing you say it makes me feel a little better."

The room fell silent and he made sure she wasn't getting ready to ask anything else before he pointed out, "Actions have consequences, Bird. And the longer you stay in the life you're living –the more you're going to put yourself and the people you love in danger."

"So I should what? Get out and now and don't look back?"

"Something like that."

Bird looked over at him and he could see her eyes glistening in the lighting of the room, and for a moment he thought maybe something he'd said had gotten through.  
That was until she started laughing.

"I don't think any of this is funny." Jim loudly said, making sure she could hear him.

"It is though!" She argued back, as she fought to top laughing.  
Clearing her throat, Bird added, "It's hilarious actually."

"No-" He started to argue, but she cut him off.

"Oh, it is. It's pretty damn funny that you still don't understand how things work in Gotham. That after everything you've seen, and knowing everything you know, that you somehow still think that walking away from something like this is even possible." Her voice had a near hiss to it.

"I understand." He tried to argue, "You feel trapped and you're scared, but you have options and what I don't understand is why you can't see that and why you keep making bad choices –keep putting yourself and everyone around you in more peril. You need to realize that enough is enough, before it is too late."

"You don't understand." She repeated, standing up and throwing her arms out to the sides in frustration as she yelled, "But I guess it's pretty easy to look down on everyone else from that pedestal you've put yourself on. You can't understand how trapped I am in this, because you're not down in the trenches with the rest of us here. You got in trouble with Falcone and I called in a favor to keep you alive, you didn't have to pay for what you did, because you had someone willing to go to bat for you-"

"I never asked for your help-" He angrily yelled back, as he stood up from the chair he'd been sitting in.  
He was past being sick and tired of her holding that over his head, but he didn't get to argue his point, when Bird yelled over him.

"Yeah, you never asked for me to put my neck on the line for you, but I did it anyways and you're alive today because of that. And the truth is, you have no idea how much of a miracle that is. There's probably less a handful of people that Falcone actually would do a favor for, and I was one of them! You have no idea the things I had to do to get to that point." Her hands clenched into tight fists down at her sides, and she felt like there wasn't enough oxygen in the room anymore.  
"I put in the time and the hard work to get to where I'd gotten. You couldn't stomach half the things I've seen happen around here, the things I've had to do to prove my loyalty. And when I stepped out of line, Fish would have the crap kicked out of me to teach me a lesson. I've paid my pound of flesh over and over again and now look where I am!"

Jim's eyes cut down to the coffee table between them, back to the various weapons scattered among the trash and for a moment wasn't sure if she was in control enough to not violently lash out at him.

Bird's face was bright red as she yelled at him, her hands still tightly clenched into fists, her small frame was trembling as she stared him down and he was sure the unhinged look she had was the exact reason Bullock usually referred to her as crazy eyes.

"I put in the footwork, had my ass kicked so many times. I was even asked to help frame Pepper for my parents' murder, because the wide-spread panic was bad for business. I hated myself for it, but I did every single thing asked of me. Fish had complete trust in me, hell even Falcone trusted and respected me and then look at where I am now –forced to work with Victor Zsasz, while Oswald gets to run a club. A club that he doesn't even know how to run, by the way, I was the one who did all the work there and at the end of the day that club should be mine and not Oswald's-"

Immediately she stopped yelling, and her eyes grew wide as she realized what she'd just said out loud.

"This is about Oswald, he's the one you're mad at." Jim realized out loud that even though he was the one she'd been screaming at –it actually didn't have anything to do with him.

"It's just not right." She breathed as she tucked her hair behind her ears.  
It wasn't as if she didn't believe Oswald didn't deserve to be standing where he was, she knew better than anyone how much he'd risked to get there. It just didn't feel right to her that he was reaping the rewards from both of their hard work, while she was being punished.

She wanted her best friend to have everything he'd dreamed of, it's just that she thought they'd be standing there together when all the smoke cleared. Instead, not he was getting a pat on the back and she owed a debt to Falcone for her betrayals.

As much as she tried to be happy for her best friend, there was a small part of her that was bitter over how things turned out -perhaps even a little worried that if it came down to it, that Oswald would throw her under a bus on his climb to the top.

"Look…" Jim breathed, rubbing a hand over his hair, he cleared his throat and asked, "How long have you been involved with the Falcone Crime Family?"

"Like four years, why?" She admitted, with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Because all I was trying to say, is that the only thing worse than being in organized crime for four years –is to be in organized for for four years _and a day_." He pointed out with raised brows, "You keep talking like it's impossible for you to walk away today, but sometimes today is all you've got and what you do right now affects whether you've actually got a tomorrow. You get what I'm saying?"

"I hear you." Bird nodded, with a weak smile as she dropped her arms back down at her sides and sighed, "But I guess this is the part where I pretend it went in on ear and out of the other, and just keep making those wrong choices. Because from where I'm standing, there is one way out right now and that's sure as hell not walking away."

When she saw a defeated look on his face and he glanced over towards her door, Bird called out, "There's something else, I needed to talk to you about."

"Okay?" He looked back to her as he spoke.

"I told you I was getting some things in order in case something happens to me. I've been doing some investigating of my own and digging into what happened to my parents-"

Nodding he said, "I remember you saying you were going to help Bruce."

"Bruce doesn't know about what I've found." Bird said, stepping closer and lowering her voice as she explained, "My brother says he wants justice for what happened, but the truth is –he wants revenge. And because of that right now he's focused on _who_ actually killed them and not _why_ they were killed. Which is a good thing, because I'm pretty damn sure that whoever actually pulled the trigger is a lot less dangerous than what's really going on."

"You found something, didn't you?" He realized, his blue eyes growing wide.

"Wayne Enterprises is so corrupt." Bird admitted, "Like, corruption on a such a large scale that there is no way my father was in the dark about it. And you see, we might not have gotten along very well, but I knew my dad… and I can't imagine him going along with anything like that. So either my parents were killed because of what he knew –or my dad was the biggest hypocrite in the world for all the lectures he gave me about how I needed to clean my act up and live my life right. Either way; I feel like have way less than half of the puzzle pieces and the ones I do have won't fit together."

"What did you uncover?" Jim asked, but instead of a response all he got was a stubborn smile from Bird and he sighed, "Why is it that you're always dangling information in front of me, but never actually sharing it?"

"Because I'm looking at the cop who strolled into Carmine Falcone's mansion in the middle of the day with an assault rifle threatening to arrest him." She pointed out, knowing that most times he was about as subtle as a train wreck and this was a delicate situation. "A day you only walked away from, because of me, by the way."

His jaw tensed and she saw anger flash through his eyes.

"If something happens to me, then I've made some arrangements and when I'm dead, you're going to get a box delivered to your apartment –that box is going to have everything I know about what happened to my parents and all the documents I could get proving corruption in the company. Like I said it's not even nearly half the entire picture, but it's all I've got right now and maybe you can do some good with it." Bird shrugged, again trying to pretend like the idea that her days were numbered wasn't enough to leave her paralyzed inside.

"But if you have information, why not just tell me now? Two sets of eyes are better than one and maybe you've missed something that I-"

"Because as soon as that box is in your hands, you're a dead man, Jim Gordon." Bird cut him off with the grim warning, "And the best we can hope for is that you're able to accomplish something with it before your number's up."

If it was anyone else, he'd have kept up his argument, but he'd gotten to know Bird well enough to know that there was really no arguing with her when her mind was made up. In fact, he had a feeling that arguing with her would end up in him getting the exact opposite of what he'd been fighting for. That she'd purposely withhold the information out of spite.

"You should get going." Bird nodded towards her door as she mumbled, "I have somewhere I need to be tonight."

Nodding, he started for her door, still unsure what to make of the entire encounter. From her showing more of her vulnerable side at first, to screaming at him and playing the blame game –to then apparently trusting him enough to have everything she'd uncovered sent to him if she were to die.

As he reached the door, he turned back and said, "When you do finally decide you've had enough of working for a crime boss –you really do have options… and you're not alone."

Bird raised her head from where she'd been eying a bottle of pills on her coffee table, and stared at him with an unreadable expression on her face as he gave her a small nod before leaving and closing the door to her apartment behind him.

 **~(That night)~**

Bird's eyes were wide as she scanned the carnage left behind, countless dead bodies lay everywhere, all over the floor and draped over tables flush with stacks of cash.

With a stunned expression her gaze fell to where Victor Zsasz was just getting up from off the floor, the blood running profusely from the bullet wound in his shoulder.

Once he was standing, he slowly raised his head and looked at her. His eyes dark with a storm brewing in them, for the first time since she'd started working with him Bird was afraid of him.

As he took a heavy step forward, she instinctively backed up –it felt like she was being preyed on by a rabid animal willing to rip it's own leg off to come at her.

"Get the bags." He ordered, venom in his tone as he pointed with the hand from his good arm towards the door where they'd parked at.

"Victor…" She breathed, taking another step backwards.

"Don Falcone needs to build the cash reserves back up, we won't have long to clear this place out. Now; go…get…the…bags." He instructed, trying to make it as clear as possible that they needed to get out of there.

"Why the hell did you do that?" She questioned, her brown eyes wide.

"Bird-" He growled.

"You just…" Shaking her head back and forth she stammered out, "You just literally took a bullet for me, why the hell would you do that?"

He stood in silence, staring back at her with a slightly strained expression tugging at his features; she wasn't sure if it was from the pain he was in or if he was desperately trying to restrain himself from attacking her.

Victor blew out a heavy breath that turned into a hiss as it spread between his tightly clenched teeth.

"I wouldn't even do that for you!" She yelled, "I have your back when we're fighting and all, but no freaking way would I jump in front of a bullet for you."

"It wasn't my choice." He revealed, his body still positioned in a tense, predatory manner.

"What…" Bird's eyebrows lowered in confusion until it started to dawn on her that he had to have been following orders and the only person who gave Victor Zsasz orders was Don Falcone. "My orders from Falcone are to work beside you –what are your orders regarding me?"

He broke eye contact for a mere second before focusing his fiery gaze back on her and accusing, "Your technique is sloppy, you don't even know what you're doing out here. I'm surprised you've lasted this long-"

"Excuse me?" Bird cut in, but he talked over her as he continued, "Your breath smells of alcohol and you're clearly under the influence of something more. Coming in here was a stupid move –you're as useful to me as a little girl playing with toy guns."

Her mouth hung open before anger clicked inside her and she hissed, "If you think I'm so useless why didn't you bring someone else? More back up than just the two of us for this whole count house full of armed men?"

Wiping the sweat from his eyes, Victor hissed, "I could have taken this entire room out on my own, easily."

Bird's eyes fell to the floor as she tried to keep her anger under control and stay focused on getting an answer to her earlier question, "Did Falcone tell you to protect me when we're in the field?"

His brute silence and hard stare was the only answer she got, but it was enough for her to fit the pieces together.

"He did…" She breathed, understanding that clearly Victor had been told to not let her know about it and he always followed his orders.  
Even if that order was to put his own life on the line.

No longer afraid that he'd hurt her, Bird marched back up to him and asked, "Why would he do that, I don't understand what value he thinks my life has." She admitted, thinking to how he'd looked past her betrayals and her eyes widened when she realized that must have also been why Victor hadn't used extreme force to bring her to the mansion the day he'd been sent for her.  
He must have been given orders not to severely injure her.

"Why does he want me alive?" She yelled, now just in front of him.

"I don't know." He admitted, looking her over as he said with a flared nostril, "I'm not paid to question my orders."

He wasn't sure if it was a result of the searing pain from his wound, or that he'd even ended up in a position where he had to act on what he'd been told to keep her alive –but he was growing tired of having to tote her around with him.  
She was arrogant and from what he could tell, a pain in everyone's ass –yet for some reason his boss wanted her alive.

Though he now had more reasons to make a plea to be allowed to do away with her.

When it was clear she wasn't going to get the bags they needed to round up the money, he angrily stalked by her, roughly bumping into her with his good side and knocking her down hard to floor.

"Get up." He ordered, as he returned to find her still sitting in the spot where he'd knocked her down.

When she didn't respond or make an attempt to get up, he charged for her, grabbing onto her upper arm and jerking her up to her feet.

"Get off me!" She shrieked, ripping her arm away from him with a look of near hatred on her face, before she turned and started towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" He called out after her.

"Away from here and away from you." She yelled back, looking over her shoulder back to him as she continued to put space between them.

With a heavy sigh, he looked towards the ceiling with an expression of pure annoyance on his face.  
Not only had she screwed up and nearly gotten herself shot, she was now expecting him to gather all the money up and load it into the car when he was down to one fully functioning arm.

"We aren't done for the day." He reminded her that they still had a few more tasks to complete before they could call it a day, but it did nothing to stop her.

"I'm done." She said, turning in the doorway to face back in his direction.

"Think about what you're doing-" He started to say but stopped when they heard sounds of very close by sirens.  
Without another word or argument, she darted from the open doorway and sprinted away from the building –knowing that he wasn't going to come after her and even if he did -he wouldn't be allowed to hurt her.

* * *

 **A/N - Poor Bird, she's really feeling like her days left are numbered. :/  
**

 **Thanks so much for reading! I especially want to thank Miss E Charlotte, Saskia D. Fox and Love. Fiction. 2016. for reviewing. ^_^**

 **You can always find me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent).**


	37. Breaking Point

**XXXVII**

 _"Satan has his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and detested."_  
 _― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

* * *

Bird stood in Harvey's kitchen next to the coffee pot that she'd started a little while ago while he finished getting ready for work.

Turning around she leaned on the counter with her elbows and thought back to the day before and how ridiculous the choice to leave when she did was. In all honesty she'd halfway expected to wake up with Victor Zsasz at the foot of the bed again –but luckily that had still only been a singular occurrence and she was hoping it stayed that way.

She was startled from her thoughts when a pair arms slid around her until she smiled and leaned back against Harvey as he greeted, "Good morning."

"Morning." She repeated back, closing her eyes and leaning against him, she wished he didn't have to go to work so they could just stay together for the day.  
But even if he didn't have to work, she'd still have to go see Falcone and apologize for how she'd left things the day before –if the conversation went well enough she was thinking about asking him why he wanted to keep her alive.

"You're quiet." He observed, still keeping her wrapped in his arms with her back against his chest.

"I'm still waking up." She answered with a small laugh.

"No, I mean you were quiet last night too." Bird couldn't see the expression on his face, but his voice was flooded with concern as he pointed out, "I woke up a little after three in the morning and you weren't in bed."

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep." Turning around she rested her hands against his chest before reaching up to his blue striped tie to adjust it as she continued, "Then I came across this documentary on TV about the top five most common parasites found in human bodies and…" Her voice trailed off when she saw the disgusted look on his face.

Giving him a wide smile she asked, "You getting something to eat on your way to the office?"

"Not now." He answered, still looking at her a little strange until he leaned in and pecked a kiss to her lips, before he reached above her to retrieve an insulated thermos cup from the cabinet above her head. "I don't know how you can watch that stuff." He admitted.

"It's interesting!" She defended with a grin when he shot her a look to say he didn't agree with the statement at all.

Pulling the lid off the top of the thermos, she turned back to the counter and pulled the coffee pot from the machine to fill the cup, walking over to him she held it out as he poured a splash of milk into the cup and glanced at her from under his brows when he asked, "Was this a normal night of not being able to sleep, or does this have anything to do with Falcone?"

"Harvey." She sighed, watching as he returned the carton of milk to the refrigerator and she twisted the lid back onto the cup, "You promised you wouldn't do this."

Taking the cup from her, he said, "I wasn't pushing… simply offering you the opportunity to open up."  
With that he raised the cup to his lips and tilted it back just as she warned, "It's hot!"

With a hiss of pain he reached for his stinging lip with his other hand and Bird shook her head as she laughed, "You do that every single morning."

Despite the pain he smiled at her, setting the cup down on the counter as he wrapped his arms around her and asked, "What are you doing today?"

"Going back to my place to shower and change and then I've got a few things to do today. I might take my brother to lunch if I have time." She shrugged.

He bit his tongue against asking what things she needed to take care of, putting on another smile he leaned in with his face just in front of hers and asked, "What's wrong with my shower? Except for the fact that I won't be there?"

Her stomach fluttered and she pressed her lips hungrily against his before pulling back just enough to say, "The fact that someone didn't do any laundry and I have nothing clean to wear after."

Absorbed in the moment with her, he leaned closer to recapture her lips, but she leaned back with a teasing smile as she questioned, "Did you hear me?"

It took him a couple seconds to process what he'd been told and his eyes widened slightly as he joked, "I'm guessing that someone is me?"

Bird nodded and continued, "I wash your clothes that are at my apartment, you know? I even take your suits to the dry cleaners."

His head cocked to the side with a look of pure amusement on his face when he nodded, "Yes, yes you do. Take my suits to the cleaners and leave them there."

"That was one time!" She exclaimed with a laugh, smiling as he leaned in to kiss her again.

As he pulled back, he caught sight of the time on the microwave clock and frowned, "I need to get to work."

Bird nodded with a hint of sadness in her eyes wishing that he didn't have to go, as he turned to leave the kitchen she lingered briefly on the tile floor, before padding after him in her socked feet.

When they reached the door he turned back around as he remembered, "Oh, I looked over the estate papers. Everything looks good to me, and I know you said you wanted to give a set to Alfred, so I went ahead and made copies of them." Nodding to the door of his home office he said, "They're on the desk."

"You're amazing, thank you." Bird smiled, raising up to kiss him, but he moved just out of reach as he said, "You're welcome… just be careful with whatever it is you have to do today?"

"Promise." She agreed, waiting for him to lean down to kiss her.

Once he'd kissed her and went out the door she shut and locked the door behind him and headed to his office. Sliding open the wooden door she walked in and dropped into the seat at his desk, scanning on the folders on top until she came across the one that belonged to her.  
As she reached for it, she bumped the computer mouse and the dark screen blinked to life –with the internet open to a real-estate website.

Slowly she laid her hand over the mouse and scrolled down the page, seeing he'd been comparing prices of houses and apartments in several different states –all of them far away from where they currently resided.

With lowered eyebrows she checked the computer history to see he'd also visited several sites for people looking to move across seas.

Reaching her finger out she pushed the button on the bottom of the monitor and blackened the screen, it was then that she spotted a few printed off papers tucked away under the keyboard and when she pulled them out to get a better look at them she saw a listing for a three bedroom flat in London, with the number of the realtor circled in red ink.

With a ragged breath, she put everything back the way it was before gathering her folder and going to get dressed for the drive to her apartment, lost deep in her own thoughts.

Had he left that out there for her to find on purpose, or was it an accident? Clearly, he was serious about them leaving Gotham, but she couldn't go anywhere, not yet at least.  
She grew a little short of breath as she wondered if he was eventually going to bring everything he'd been looking at to her attention and expect her to agree.

By the time she reached her apartment, she was still deeply lost in her head, but she fought against the thoughts. There were more important matters to attend to, like to ask for Falcone's forgiveness as soon as she'd showered and changed.

Unlocking her door she walked in and dropped the folders to her coffee table, before she had time to do much else something hit her hard on the back and brought her down to the floor with a gasp of pain and just as quickly her wrists were bound with duct tape behind her back and as she frantically kicked to fend off her attacker, her legs were caught in a strong pair of arms and her ankles bound.

After her legs were dropped back to the floor, she helplessly squirmed around in a panic and shook the hair out of her face as she turned on her side and looked up to see Victor Zsasz standing above her.

Raising a hand up in a wave he greeted, "Hi there."

"Victor!" She yelled, her panic turning to anger, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Bringing you to Don Falcone." He answered, kneeling down to get a better look at her when she kept thrashing about on the floor as she screamed, "I would have come with you! I was going to go by the mansion-"

Her words were replaced with her muffled voice as he slapped another piece of duct tape over her mouth to silence her.

Grinning at her he said, "I'm not falling for that again. You fool me once –shame on you, but fool me twice…" Standing back up his eyes looked darker than usual as he added, "No one lives that long."

"Take her to the car." He instructed as he turned to leave and Bird saw two men she recognized from seeing around Falcone's Mansion walking towards her; one of them had a thick, large black blanket in his hands.

Her eyes widened and she struggled more against her bindings, but it was useless as the men rolled her up so tightly in the blanket she could barely even move, let alone breathe and the day went down from there as she was crammed inside of a trunk and driven to the mansion with whoever was driving hitting every single bump and pothole they could find.

 **~()~**

As the blanket was pulled off of her, she looked up to see Falcone and Victor looking down at her as she struggled to catch her breath, her sweat dampened hair was stuck to her face and her clothes clung to her body. Even in the Gotham coldness, the ride in the trunk being wrapped in the blanket made it feel like a sauna in the middle of summer.

The tip of her tongue was numb and she'd lost some skin from her lips, not to mention the bitter taste of the glue was still stinging her mouth; but she'd managed to get the duct tape off her mouth on the drive there.

"Don Falcone." She stammered, still struggling for a breath.

Kneeling down Victor cut the tape from her ankles and wrists, before he stood up and extended a hand to her. Catching her off guard when he appeared to be over his rage from the prior day and back to seeming as though he almost enjoyed her company – _almost_.

Her hand shook a little as she slowly reached up and grabbed onto his black gloved hand and let him help her to her feet.

"Alright there, my dear?" Falcone asked.

Victor turned to leave, but stopped by the door when he hadn't been instructed to leave yet.

"I've been better." Bird admitted, "Typically I prefer to ride up front instead of the trunk."

Her words earned a small half-smile from the crime boss before he returned to looking stern and emotionless.

"I'm having a hard time understanding something and I was hoping you could help me out."

Slowly she nodded, still feeling like she couldn't catch her breath.

"Good." He exclaimed, "I was hoping you could open my eyes on what exactly made you feel like leaving the count house yesterday was a good idea?"

With a shrug she glanced to Victor and answered, "I didn't think I'd be injured for doing so, I guess."

"Really? And what led you to think that?" He pushed, and Bird looked back to Victor realizing he must have left parts of their conversation out when he recounted the story to his boss. Like the parts where she'd found out from him that Don Falcone had ordered him to keep her alive, something she wasn't supposed to have known.

Her eyes locked with Victor's and she saw a slightly nervous expression on his face, like he was ready for some kind of punishment of his own.  
She'd gathered that he seemed to have a problem with failures; his own failures.

Even if it was his orders, he'd taken a bullet for her and she had felt a little guilty for going off and leaving him there –the least she could do was not out him for a small slip up.

"I haven't an idea in the slightest." She lied, looking back to Falcone as she softly said, "Sometimes, I get a tad delusional when I mix the wrong pills with alcohol."

Giving her a hard stare he said, "You seem to be having trouble. Have a seat. Would you like a glass of water?"

"Please." She gratefully said as she sat down and took the tall glass of water from him and took a large drink, which she nearly choked on. Spitting it back into the glass she said, "That's vodka."

"My apologies, I was under the impression you like to start drinking well before noon." Falcone replied, taking the glass from her hand and setting it to the side as he walked back to his desk, and nodded towards the man waiting at the door, "Thank you, Victor. Please, leave us to talk."

"Yes, boss." He nodded, glancing at Bird for a brief second before he left the room and pulled the doors shut behind him.

Falcone watched her still struggling to breath and repeatedly wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before he picked up a bottle of water and tossed it to her, effortlessly she caught it and took a drink breathing a sigh of relief before downing nearly half the bottle.

"Youth is truly wasted on the young." He sighed, "Your generation is so entitled, wanting all the payoff without putting in the footwork to get there."

"Sir, let me explain." She pleaded, looking up to him.

"No explanation needed, as it is… I feel like I owe you one." He said, sitting down in a chair across from her he unbuttoned his suit jacket and focused his eyes on her. Watching her shift nervously before he began, "My assigning you to work with Victor was not an intended punishment like you perceived it to be. It was a gift, a chance to be great at something and grow in ways that you desperately need to if you plan on surviving in this world. I am at the top of my game, but not foolish enough to think it will always be that way."

Lowering his head he continued, "The world is changing and more and more, I find myself questioning how long I'll be able to keep up with the shift in times. Maybe I should have already stepped away, I don't know, but you see Bird… I love this city and when the day comes that I can't keep up –I want to rest easy knowing that Gotham is in strong, capable hands."

"Why are you telling me this?" She managed to breath with a stunned expression.

"Follow me." He nodded as he stood up, and slowly she followed after him down the hall and through the doors into a large dining room with a grand table in the center.

Motioning around he said, "This is the table where I hold most of the meetings with my underbosses." Walking over he rested his hands on the back of the chair at the end and said, "You can't begin to understand the sacrifices I've made in my life to earn this seat at the head of the table –the throne. I fought my way up, overcame every hurdle put in my path and the journey came with many hard learned lessons."

"I'm sorry." She said when given the chance to speak, "I don't know why I reacted the way I did with Victor yesterday-"

"I imagine it must be terrible to be lost in the throes of addiction; easy to lose sight of things." He reasoned, looking more disappointed than angry as he turned to face her.

"I'm not…" Her voice trailed off, looking down she kicked her boot against the floor and stammered, "I just… sometimes I need some help to make it through the day."

"Yes?" He questioned, waiting for her to nod before he said, "You have to be focused at all times and you can't do that if you're intoxicated. The next mission I send you on could very well be your last if you go into it without being a hundred percent prepared. Call it what you want, but the truth is –it's just weakness."

"You are not working a nightclub anymore, you are working directly underneath me and you are a part of this family. A machine can't function properly if it has missing or malformed pieces." He reasoned, "You need to clean your act up, my dear. I can't run the risk of you and your weaknesses bringing any part of my operations down."

Walking up to where she was standing, Falcone said, "This is your last chance to do what's been asked of you. I have killed people for far less and whatever illusion your operating under that causes you to believe you're untouchable is a false one. When I give orders, I expect the outcome to be nearly perfect and if you can't do that…" Seeing her vision was glued to the floor he instructed, "Look at me."

Swallowing hard she raised her head to face him and his eyes locked on hers as he said, "Then it will be with a heavy heart and great sadness –but the only way I can see fit to fix this problem would be to eliminate the weak link –and you are as weak as they come."

The words fell like a ton of bricks landing square on the center of her chest and stole the air straight from her lungs; she believed what he was saying, believed it to her core.

"So, here's what going to happen. You are going to take to the end of the week to get yourself in order and I'll have Victor contact you when I think it's time to bring you back in and we'll see where it goes from there." Falcone said, standing tall as he faced the small statured brunette who looked like someone had just slapped her across the face.

"Reasonable?" He asked.

"Yes, sir."

Waiting until she'd made eye contact with him again, he said, "You may not choose to believe it; but I _need_ you to understand that everything I have done up to now, and everything that happens after you leave this room has been to make you stronger –shape you into the person you're meant to be." Nodding towards the door he added, "You're free to go."

Turning she started to scurry from the room, but he stopped her right as she got to the doorway as he called out, "Oh, Bird… I nearly forgot."

Turning back she asked, "Forgot what?"

There was a foreboding tone to his voice, a heaviness in his tone as he spoke that chilled her to the core and made her heart race with the worst fear she'd ever felt as he said, "To tell you to give my regards to Harvey Dent. Let's hope for a smooth recovery, shall we?"

"Recovery?" Bird gasped, taking a stumbling step back into the room, her mouth hung open as she fought to get at least one of the several questions weighing on her mind out. "What did you do?" She finally questioned.

"That will be all." Falcone sternly said, making it clear the he wasn't going to offer up any more information on the matter, and that quite frankly; he was done dealing with her for the day.

 **~()~**

Returning from his lunch break, Jim sat his fresh cup of coffee down on his desk and looked across to Bullock's empty desk. His partner never seemed to make it back from break on time.

Shaking his head, he opened up one of the folders on his desk and pulled a legal pad from his desk drawer to begin writing up his report. Quite possibly his least favorite part of the job, he'd much rather be out in the field working –accomplishing something and working to make the city a safer place.  
Compared to that, making sure to cross the T's and dot the I's, seemed pointless and rather monotonous.

"Jim!"

He'd just started to take a drink of his coffee when he'd heard his name being called in a frantic voice and he looked over to see Bird rushing towards him.

Her eyes were wide and red-rimmed, a look of sheer panic on her face and once she got over to him, all she was able to do was make some strained noises –desperately trying to tell him something, but not able to get any words to come out.

Standing up to meet her, Jim looked her over and questioned, "What happened?"

"I… uh…" She gasped trying to catch her breath and calm down enough to tell him she needed his help.

Looking behind her to the doors she'd came in through, his first thought was that she had gotten herself in trouble and was running from something. "Is someone after you?" He questioned, keeping an eye on the door in case Victor Zsasz or someone else was about to burst in.

"No-"

"Did something happen with Bruce?"

"No!" She yelled, rubbing her forehead as she pleaded, "Please just stop guessing."

"Then talk to me!" He yelled back. It was then he noticed several of his co-workers watching them, either curious as to why she was there, or the yelling had caught their attention.

"Here." Jim said in a quieter tone, motioning to his empty chair as he instructed, "Sit down."

Nodding Bird dropped into the seat and watched as Jim pulled the chair from Bullock's desk over next to her so they could talk.

"Tell me what happened." He tried to keep his voice calm and friendly to put her at ease. He had no idea what was going on, but she was more shaken than he'd ever seen her.

"I need your help." She managed to say, catching him entirely off guard with the admission. Even when she'd come to him for help with something in the past, she'd never flat out admitted it.

Before he could question her anymore, Bird explained, "Harvey never made it to work today. I called and they haven't seen him all morning. When I try to call him, there's no answer and he _never_ ignores my calls. Something is wrong, something's happened and-"

"Did you two have a fight?" He questioned, thinking that there could be a million reasons why he didn't go to work and wouldn't take her calls –none of them cause for such alarm.

"No!" Bird exclaimed, her mind drifting back to earlier that morning. Things had been as close to perfect as they could be in any relationship that day, they were happy.

"When was the last time you saw or spoke to him?" He pushed for more information.

"This morning." She answered, "I stayed over last night and I was at his apartment even after he left for work." Waving a hand like what she was saying was entirely useless in the matter, she hurriedly added, "We have to find him. He's hurt or…"

Her breathing grew increasingly labored and he saw her eyes fill to the brim with tears.

Lowering his voice, Jim asked, "What aren't you telling me?"

"I called Gotham General, but if he's there –they won't tell me. On the way here, I called everywhere I could think of and I can't find him, Jim." Her voice cracked and she looked up at the ceiling, focusing her eyes on one of the bright lights to hold back her tears.

"Bird!" Jim called out, getting her attention, "Look, now isn't the time to be holding anything back. If you know something, you need to tell me."

Swallowing hard, she admitted, "I just came from Falcone's and he told me to give Harvey his regards. He has never brought him up in any conversation with me before, and when I went to leave he said…" Pinning her eyes shut, she whispered, "That we should hope he has a smooth recovery."

"Recovery?" Jim repeated back under his breath.

Nodding frantically, Bird reminded him, "And this morning he was fine –now I can't get ahold of him and something is wrong."

"Stay here." He instructed, as he stood from the chair he'd pulled over next to her.

As he started to walk away, she reached out and grabbed onto his arm, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see what calls came into the station, see if anyone knows anything." He explained.

Letting go of him, she swiveled the chair back to face the desk and rested with her elbows on the desk, she rested her face in her hands and hoped this was all some terrible coincidence and Falcone's words were just to scare her.

Laying a hand on her shoulder, Jim promised, "We'll find him."

It was several minutes later that Jim descended the stairs from Captain Essen's office, and Bird's heart dropped when she looked his way and he quickly looked away. A sure sign that if he had any news –it was going to be bad news.

Bird rose to her feet when he walked up to her. "Well?" She asked, the second he was within earshot from her.

"Hey…" He breathed, as he got closer, trying his best to plaster on a smile as he nodded back to the chair she'd been sitting in and said, "Why don't you take a seat."

"You found something out?" Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest, threating to burst right through her ribs as each passing second felt like an entire hour.

"Sit down." He repeated.

"I don't want to sit down, I want you to tell me what's going on." She stubbornly argued, not even taking a breath as she questioned, "Do you know where he is?"

Reading the expression on Jim's face, she knew she was on the right track.

"Is he dead?" She came right out in asking about her worst fear, catching Jim off guard. Usually people started by asking if their loved one was okay, or possibly even how bad they were hurt –it wasn't often someone immediately brought up the worst case scenario.

His extended silence did nothing to ease Bird's already fragile emotional state, and she breathed, "Oh my god… he's dead."

It felt like someone or something had punched a hole straight through her chest, disabling her heart and lungs in a single blow and leaving her paralyzed. All of the color drained from her face and Jim rushed forward, just barely catching her in time before she hit the floor after her legs buckled underneath her.

Guiding her over to the chair he'd been trying to get her to sit in all along.

"He's not dead." Jim quickly tried to clear the situation up, but when his words didn't earn a response from her, he questioned, "Bird?"

Still nothing.

She was sitting in the chair staring down at her lap and no longer aware of anything going on around her. There were no tears, not real reaction –there was nothing.

Pulling the other chair right up across from her, Jim sat down and repeated, "Bird, hey, can you hear me?" Even shaking her arm as he spoke didn't get any sort of reaction out of her, it was like she'd left her body and he was staring at an empty vessel.

"Bird!" Jim said louder, as he reached forward and took ahold of her face, physically making her raise her head and look at him. "He isn't dead, okay? He's hurt –he's in the hospital, but he's alive."

It took a few moments for his words to actually reach her, and even more time for her to come out of the trance she'd slipped into. This wasn't the first time something bad in her life had sent her into a state like that. After she'd been attacked as a teenager, it took her over six months to finally speak again.

Thinking that she'd lost Harvey, believing he'd been killed because of her actions had completely disabled her from grief and instead of breaking down like most people would do, every feeling –every thought had just ceased.

Growing increasingly worried, Jim was just about to yell for someone to call for help when the empty look in her eyes faded and anger filled their brown hues. In a split second, she roughly slapped his hands away from her face and hissed, "Why would you let me think he was dead then?"

Jim opened his mouth to point out that she'd jumped to the conclusion and then slipped into a catatonic state before he could do or say much else, but Bird didn't give him a chance to say anything, as she fired off one question after another. Demanding to know where he was, how bad he was hurt, how long ago he'd been found, if he was going to be okay.

She barely paused long enough to pull in a breath, before she started back up with the same line of questioning and he had to yell over her, "Hey, hey!"

Her mouth hung open, her panicked breath rushing in and out and somehow she managed to find the strength to nod at him.

"A 911 call came in a few hours ago from witnesses who saw a man getting attacked and beaten up in the parking garage outside of City Hall. He was taken to Gotham General." Jim tried to answer some of the many questions he'd been asked, "He was unconscious when the paramedics arrived, but his vitals were stable, they think he's going to be okay."

Trying to further ease her heart and mind he glanced up at the clock and added, "That was the report from over an hour ago, he might even already be awake."

When he saw her eyes land on her car keys that she'd dropped on his desk, he quickly grabbed them up before she rush off.

"What are you-" She started to ask. It seemed impossible, but somehow her voice was even more frantic than it had been.

"I'm sorry." He said, "But I can't let you drive like this-"

"I'm fine!" She yelled, trying to swat the keys away from him, but he moved back and held them tightly in his hand where she couldn't get to them.

"You're hysterical." He pointed out, wondering how she'd ever driven herself there in the first place. When she'd arrived at the station, she was so worked up she couldn't form words to tell him what was wrong.

"Give me my keys." She demanded, trying to sound and appear much more in control than she really was. It felt like her insides had turned into a hurricane, not only could she not think straight, but she felt sick to her stomach. Her hands were trembling in spite of her trying to appear composed and he couldn't let her get behind the wheel in that state.

"Bird, listen to me!" He demanded, as she tried to get her keys back away from him again, "I'm not saying you can't go to the hospital, all I'm saying is you're in no condition to drive yourself. Why don't we call someone for you-"

"Who would we call, Jim?" Bird practically hissed at him. The only person she could even think to call would have been Alfred, but Wayne Manor was in the complete opposite direction of the hospital and both he and her brother would want to know what happened and she couldn't handle their questions.

When he didn't offer up an answer, she let out a low bitter laugh and the words burnt at the tip of her tongue when she pointed out, "I don't have anyone. So please give me my keys, Jim. Don't think I won't forcibly take them from you."

"I'll take you." He offered, as he stood up and tucked her car keys in his pocket. Knowing she wasn't going to like what he said next, he admitted, "I need like fifteen, twenty minutes first, okay?"

When the expression on her face changed to one that looked like she'd been slapped, he added, "I need to take care of a few things here, and then we'll head over to the hospital. Okay?"

When she didn't say anything to him, he turned around and started back for the stairs.

"Jim, wait!" Bird yelled, getting up and rushing after him so fast, that when he turned around to see what she wanted, she ran right into him –nearly knocking them both down.

"What am I supposed to do for twenty minutes while he is lying in a hospital bed alone?" She questioned, her eyes darting back and forth over his face as she spoke.

"I know this is hard, but there is nothing you can do to help right now. Just sit back down and I'll come get you."

He stood in place and watched as she muttered angrily and cursed at him under her breath as she turned and headed back towards his desk, before he continued on his way back up to Essen's office to let her know he'd be taking off early.

It was just a few minutes later that Jim had gotten back to his desk, to see if she wanted coffee or water or anything while she waited - to find it empty. Running a hand over his hair, he blew out a sigh and looked around trying to see where she'd gone.

"Hey partner, lose something?" Bullock asked, as he sat the cup from the place he'd visited for lunch down on his desk and pulled his hat off.

"Bird." Jim admitted.

"Crazy eyes?" Bullock asked, shrugging out of his coat, "I saw her flying out of the parking lot. I'm talking bat out of hell. Thought for sure she was going to mow a couple uniforms down."

"No, that's…" Jim started to argue as he patted his pockets, but his voice trailed off when he realized her keys were gone. It then dawned on him, that she'd purposely ran into him before to steal her keys back.

"She give you slip or something?" Bullock laughed as he moved his chair back over to his desk to sit down, leaning back he kicked his legs up and watched as Jim looked increasingly distressed.

"I've got a few things to do and then I'm taking off early." Jim confided, sitting down at his own desk.

"Why?" Bullock questioned, but when his partner didn't give him an answer, he pointed at him and he cautioned, "Don't go chasing after that one. She's trouble, I tell you. Trouble."  
With that he picked his hat back up and laid it over his face to block the florescent lighting out, and readjusted to get more comfortable in his chair.

* * *

 **A/N- Thank you all for reading! Ahh, so much is happening and poor Harvey Dent. I'm closing in on the end of season one now :P**  
 **So excited! I hope you all liked the chapter.**

 **I owe a huge thanks to Snuffles awesome, SwingingOnAStar, Miss E Charlotte, Love. Fiction. 2016 and to Guest for reviewing the last chapter. ^_^**


	38. The Coldest Night

**XXXVIII**

" _All the most powerful emotions come from chaos -fear, anger, love- especially love. Love is chaos itself. Think about it! Love makes no sense. It shakes you up and spins you around. And then, eventually , it falls apart."_ _― Kirsten Miller, The Eternal Ones_

* * *

"Bird?" Oswald asked in a whisper as he took a few slow steps into the hospital room with his eyes locked on his best friend, who was sitting in a chair next to the hospital bed.

When she raised her head and looked at him, he could see tear steaks down her face and her eyes looked painfully red.

"Look." She breathed, nodding to the bed where her boyfriend was lying, "Just look what Falcone had done to him."

Oswald's eyes slowly moved from Bird, over to the bed where Harvey Dent was laying with his face badly beaten.

Slowly he walked into the room further, clearing his throat he stuttered out, "Is h-he going to make a full recovery?"

Letting go of Harvey's hand that she'd been sitting there holding, she stood up, walking towards Oswald, she said, "From what they've told me, yes."

"Then all is well?" He asked in a hopeful voice, knowing that Bird was prone to react out of emotion and if she made a move against the Don before time was right then it would put everything he'd worked for in jeopardy.

"No, Oswald!" Bird hissed in a whisper, "All is not well, just look at him! He's black and blue from head to toe. He's got a level two concussion and was so agitated that they had to sedate him before I ever got here. He hasn't woke up yet."

Looking down her chin quivered as she continued, "They thought he might have had a couple broken ribs, but luckily they're just badly bruised." Scoffing at her own words, she rolled her eyes, "Lucky? What am I saying… those take more than a month to heal up and it's painful. But it beats broken ribs and a punctured lung."

"The important thing is that he will recover." Oswald reminded her. Though in truth, he wished Falcone had just had his men kill Harvey Dent. Then one of his problems would be solved and he, himself, wouldn't be at fault.

Oswald was sure that if Harvey was no longer in the picture, things between himself and Bird would go back to how it used to be.

Slowly he stepped forward and in a rare moment of bravery when it came to his interactions with her; he hugged her.

Tears welled back up in her eyes as she held onto him and returned the embrace. Stepping back; she questioned, "What are you doing here?"

"I came for you." He admitted, glancing to the bed where Harvey still appeared to be asleep and lowered his voice,"For your sake –to talk you down from doing something that could result in you ending up in worse shape than Harvey Dent."

"Doing something like kill Falcone?" Bird asked, her jaw tensed, "Torture isn't even a fitting word for what I'm going to do to him."

His eyebrows raised, remembering a time when Fish Mooney had said nearly the same thing to him. "Y-you sound like Fish." He pointed out.

"No." Bird said with a low laugh, "Fish didn't have it in her to kill the old man. But me? I'm going to make him wish he was dead."

He could have sworn her brown eyes turned to black as she hissed through her teeth, "Falcone wants some heartless, skilled killer? Then that's what he'll get. He'll see just how heartless I can be. I swear to god, I'm going to make him pay for this…"

"Bird, no." Oswald argued, shaking his head frantically from side to side, "You're not thinking clearly… you see, this why I'm here –to prevent you from going on a suicide mission."

Pointing to the bed she cried out, "He did not deserve this!"

Lowering her voice, she tried to catch her breath, but all that came out were strained noises and fits of air, "I did this! I made a stupid move because I knew I wouldn't get hurt from it and then he's jumped by two guys on his way to work? I was prepared to take a beating, I was ready for _my_ punishment, but this… this is wrong. He didn't do anything." Her eyes looked as deep as an ocean in her despair as she breathed out with a bitter taste, "The only thing he's done wrong was love me."

His own jaw tensed at her words, and his gaze sharply cut over to Harvey, before he looked back at Bird and asked, "Were you really surprised at how this turned out?"

"What are you-" She started to ask, but he cut her off.

"Or don't you remember how many times Don Falcone had Fish's lovers hurt as punishment?" He reminded her.

"Of course I do." Bird nodded, "But this is different... this..." Her voice trailed off and an even deeper look of guilt took over her expression.

She should have known, she thought to herself. Oswald was right, she shouldn't have been surprised at how the situation had panned out.

Not after so many times of witnessing nearly similair situations happen to her boss when she was working under Fish Mooney.

"Take a step back." Oswald pleaded, "Bird, you have to look at the bigger picture. If you were to confront Don Falcone, he'd kill you and if by some chance you were able to injure or kill him –then any number of his men would take you down, right then and there."

"Then you step up and take the throne." She shrugged, no longer caring about what happened to herself.

"You'll be dead!" He hissed through his un-brushed teeth, shaking his head at her. "And we both know that would never work –there would be too many rising up to fill his shoes." His hands trembled down at his sides as he continued, "I won't let you destroy all of the work we've put in. Bird, listen to me… we have to carry everything out as we have planned. When the moment finally comes to be rid of Don Falcone… that moment will be yours."

"That could be months to a year away from now!" Bird complained, looking frantic as she raked her trembling fingers through her hair.

"Your only option is to wait for the right time." He said, hobbling over to where she was standing and adding, "Failure is not an option –not after everything we've worked for."

"This is unacceptable." She hissed in a whisper at him, "I don't care about the stupid plan anymore. What don't you understand? Someone I love is lying in a hospital bed because of Carmine Falcone –who should be six feet under, rotting away with bugs eating what's left of his shriveled body-"

"You will not tear down everything we've built!" He raised his voice at her, taking a step forward, he was now trembling with rage too as he repeated, "I won't let you!"

"And just how do you think you're going to stop me, Oswald? Hmm?" She was in his face as she spoke. He'd seen her doing this other people before to intimidate them, but he couldn't recall a time she'd tried to tactic on him.

"You'd turn on me?" He nearly gasped, pointing a shaking finger towards the occupied hospital bed as he added, "You'd turn on me, your oldest and closest friend… for that?"

"He isn't a 'that', he is a person!" She argued, growing even more enraged with just his mere presence.

"I don't care." He admitted, his voice cracking with conviction, "In our grand scheme of things, he is nothing!"

"You mean _your_ grand scheme?"

"Yes!" Closing his eyes, he blew out a sigh and shook his head, trying to back pedal on his words, "No. This is our plan, our city, our thrones and leadership on the line." His voice lowered when he questioned, "Yet again you're doubting how much you mean to me? All of this is nothing without you. Without you everything falls apart..."

With an expression on his face of total disbelief, he breathed, "I never thought I'd live to see the day you'd turn against me. After all this time, after everything we've been through-"

"Are you kidding me right now?" The laugh that accompanied her words was unhinged, "I have never turned on you. I have been nothing but loyal to you Oswald, and I'm paying a high price for that. So don't you dare question my devotion to you, you know exactly how much you mean to me."

His eyes moved over her face and slowly his anger faded and he knew the battle had been won.

"Then you understand why you can't make a move against Falcone." His words were simple, tone back to calm and collected. She didn't even have to say anything for him to know she'd given in.

He'd often get caught up in the fact that she'd started bringing new people into her life, but he also was aware of how much he meant to her, and if he had to leverage that against her –then so be it.  
It was for her own good, he told himself.

Bird turned her back to him, shaking her head and closing her eyes, realizing he was yet again manipulating her to get what he wanted.

Slowly turning around to face him, her expression was twisted in pain and she slowly nodded. "Fine, but when we kill The Roman-"

"All yours." He promised with a curt nod.

They stood in silence for a few moments before they heard Harvey make a small groan and start to move around in the bed.

"You need to go before he wakes up." She whispered, placing a hand on Oswald's back and pushing him towards the door knowing his presence would only upset her boyfriend more than he was already likely to be.

Just as he was outside of the room, he turned back to face her and he could see the tears welling up in her eyes. She pulled in a breath and admitted, "You know, when you first showed up, I really thought you were here because you knew I really needed someone."

Her eyebrows raised as she added, "Stupid me, huh? To actually believe that you were here for me and not to suit your own agenda."

"Bird-" He frantically called out, but didn't get the chance to plead his case as she shut the door in face and leaned against it to make sure he couldn't come back in.

Once she was sure he was gone, she checked the hallway before shutting the door again and walked back over to the bed, returning to the chair she'd been sitting in when Oswald showed up.

Sliding her hand under where Harvey's hand was lying beside him, she gently clutched onto him as she asked, "Harvey?"

He made another pained noise and slowly turned his head to look at her, for a fleeting moment appearing confused as he tried to sit up before dropping back down and breathing heavily from the pain he was in.

"You're awake." She whispered, lacing her fingers with his as she spoke.

"There were…" He rasped in a dry voice, "There were two guys… I was in the parking garage-"

"I know." She nodded, tears glistening in her eyes as she questioned, "Did they say anything to you?"

Closing his eyes he swallowed hard and pulled his hand away from hers to readjust the oxygen tubing, as he remembered exactly what happened.  
They'd given him a message to pass on to Bird, to tell her that the next time Don Falcone tasks her with a job –he expects perfection in return.

"I am so sorry." Bird whispered, no longer able to keep the tears at bay as they slid down her cheeks. Standing up she leaned over the bed and gently kissed him, before leaning up and vowing, "I will make Falcone pay for this –maybe not tomorrow or next week, but one day-"

"No." He argued, reaching a hand up and capturing her hand in his grip to get her attention, "You'll get yourself killed."

"Harvey-" She started to say, but stopped when he tried to sit up farther in the bed, but hurt so bad that he couldn't move. There were shooting pains across his chest making it feel impossible to even take a breath.

Frustrated from being so helpless and hurt, he hissed through gritted teeth, "This is exactly why I've been telling you to leave this part of your life behind. Falcone rules out of fear and people always get hurt." His eyes closed and he took in a rattling breath and added, "If you'd quit Fish's club months ago, or left Gotham like I told you to do…"

"I would give anything to go back, but I can't. I am so, so sorry." She replied in a cracking voice as she struggled to catch her own breath, "I'm-"

"You're a criminal, Starling." He accused, turning his head on the pillow to look away from her and continued, "I looked past it, but it doesn't change what you are and nothing good ever comes from that type of life."

Watching with a shattered and helpless expression as he tried to move around in the bed again, she stammered, "H-here, let me help you."

"Stop it!" He yelled, knocking her hands away when she went to reach for his pillow to help him readjust.  
He hated himself for the outburst as it happened, knowing she didn't deserve it, but he couldn't stop himself. He was in more pain than he'd ever been in –in his entire life and more scared than he'd like to admit.

It was a blitz attack he'd never seen coming and he didn't stand a chance against the two men continually pummeling on him. It also had reminded him of feeling so helpless when his dad would severely beat him as a child.

It was too much, everything that day had been too much and as much as he tried to not blame her, it couldn't really be helped.

"Harvey, I just want to help you." She pleaded, more tears rolling down her face as she tried to convince herself that he was just lashing out from the pain, but his words rang true in her mind. Reaching back out, she again tried to assist him, but he caught her hand and held it painfully tight in his as he said, "You want to help me? Get out."

"What?" She sputtered, wincing in pain when he continued to hold onto her hand with such strength it felt like all of her bones were being smashed together, until he let go of her with the same force he'd been squeezing it with.

"Just go." He sighed.

"You're in pain… I'll go get a nurse and-" Her breathing was labored, rushing rapidly in and out of her lungs and her mouth hung open as she held onto her now aching and sore hand with her good one.

"I don't want you here." He coldly said, trying to move again only to be knocked down by the pain and weakness he was in.

Helpless, his head fell back against the pillows and he stared straight up to the ceiling as he said, "Everything bad in life this past year has been because of you –from the minute you walked into my life… all the bad has been you."

With a noise comparable to getting the wind knocked out of her she stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over her own feet as she did. She took her time, moving painfully slow to gather her purse and jacket –giving him all the time in the world to change his mind and ask her to stay, but he wouldn't even look back to her.

Just before stepping out of him room, she dried all the tears from her face and looked back towards the bed one last time, before stepping out into the hallway.

Bird managed to hold it together while she located a nurse and told them Harvey was awake and in need of something for pain, but once she reached the alcove in the hallway where the elevators were, she started having trouble breathing.

After pressing the down arrow button several times, her eyes started to burn with tears and she fought against the need to cry. She was not going to break down, not here. For all she knew Falcone had people watching her and she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction to see how badly having Harvey injured had broken her.

Finally with a ding, one of the elevators opened and she started to rush on to it, thinking once the doors closed behind her she'd at least be out of sight for when the tears started to pour like rain.

That was until she nearly bumped into someone, not even looking up she mumbled an 'excuse me' under her breath and backed up.

"How is he?" Jim questioned, as he stepped off of the elevator and faced her.

"He's awake." She managed to choke out, sputtering as she choked on the breath she tried to take. "He's… he's going to be okay."

An ever growing sense of panic was starting to grow within her.  
Control was how she kept her world from falling apart, how she kept from falling apart. Chaos had always been her undoing, and right now she didn't feel in control of anything at all.

"That's good." Jim said, "That's good news." A confused expression taking over his features, realizing she seemed like she was on the verge of breaking down, he lowered his voice as he asked, "I know this is a really stupid question… but are you okay?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Yes, it's a stupid question? Or, Yes, you're okay."

"Yes, Jim!" She yelled, feeling anger momentarily take over the despair as she continued, "Yes, okay? Yes to every damn thing you say and said before. You were right, okay? Someone as bad as me doesn't deserve someone like him. Everything I do puts the people around me in danger and yes this is all my fault!"

With that she brushed past him, heading for the stairs instead of the elevator,ignoring him as he called her after to stop.

Making it about halfway down the second flight of stairs, Bird finally came to a stop, her grip was tight on the railing and everything in her body felt unsteady as she slowly lowered down until she was sitting on the stairs.

Hearing the footsteps approaching behind her, she closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the cold metal railing and refused to look over when she felt Jim sit down on the step beside her.

"Just go home, Jim." She finally complained, still feeling like she was on the verge of breaking down and when she couldn't hold the tears back any longer she didn't want an audience.

"I can't." He quietly said.

"Why?" She whispered, still refusing to look back at him.

"Like you said earlier, you don't have anyone-" He started to remind her, but she was having no part of it.

"Yeah? Well, that doesn't mean I need you." Her teeth were gritted as she spoke, and he watched her body shaking as she tried to control her breathing. It was plain to see she was using every last ounce of restraint she had to hold everything together.

"Well, it doesn't work that way." Jim argued with her, his voice barely over a whisper as he pointed out, "You can't repeatedly come to me for help and then just expect me to walk away when something like this happens. I'm here, you've got me whether you like it or not."

Slowly she turned her head and looked over at him with a pained but nearly unreadable expression on her face. Very few people in her life had ever cared enough to stick around when things got tough, even fewer would realize that her trying to push them away was actually a test to see if she meant enough for them to stay and fight through the thick of it.

"You were right." She quietly said, "The longer I stay in this life, the more I'm putting everyone I care about in danger."

"This was one of those times where I didn't want to be right." He admitted to her.

The stairwell fell into silence, until he finally pulled in a breath and asked, "What happened up there? What did he say to you?" With a nod towards the ceiling.

"Terrible things." Bird offered up with a weak chuckle and a shrug, "He blames me, which he has every single right too. This is entirely my fault."

Jim stayed silent as he listened. He wanted to say that it wasn't her fault, say anything that might make her feel better –but he also wasn't going to lie to her and tell her none of the blame rested on her shoulders.

"He probably needs some time." Jim finally said, knowing the words were probably pointless to her ears. Nothing he could say could make the situation any better on her.

"Clearly you don't know him very well." Bird scoffed, shaking her head before she elaborated, "There's no in between. Not with us. Things are either really good or really bad and right now I'm scared we'll never get past the bad."

Pulling in a wavering breath, she mumbled, "How can we, when _I'm_ the bad?"

Picking up on what she'd said, Jim eyed her from the corner of his eye and asked, "What do you mean really bad? How bad?"

"It doesn't matter." She sighed, seeming to grow despondent again.

It wasn't like he was ever much of a fan of talking about feelings either, but it was so frustrating when it came to Bird. There were so many moments where he started to feel like something had gotten through to her or she was going to just be herself –and then just as quickly as that side of her appeared, it would vanish.

As she reached up to move her hair out of her face and tuck it behind her ears, he caught sight of her slightly swollen –now discolored and bruised hand.

Knowing she wasn't like that when they'd see each other earlier in the day, he asked, "What happened to your hand?"

Looking down, she cringed as she made a fist a few times before shrugging the question off, but he wasn't ready to let it go.

"You weren't hurt earlier…" His voice trailed off, her words replaying over in his mind of how she'd told him things were either really good or really bad between herself and Harvey.

His eyebrows lowered as he looked over at her and asked, "Did Harvey do that?"

Swallowing hard, Bird tucked her hands into her pockets to hide the injury from him. When she heard him pull in a breath like he was about to say something, she quickly explained, "He's not really himself. They gave him medicine earlier and-"

"And it sounds like you're making a lot of excuses." He cut in.

"My god!" She exclaimed, every ounce of frustration she felt coming out clearly in her tone when she loudly asked, "What do you want me to say, Jim?"

"The truth." He answered. Earning a scoff from her. Everyone always said that's what they wanted, but in reality most everyone just wants to hear whatever will make them feel better. Everyone says they want the truth until they don't like what they hear, or rather don't care enough to face it.

"You want the truth?" She laughed, and the control she'd been holding over her emotions let go and tears started to fall down her cheeks as she stared back at him and said, "The truth is that I don't even feel like an entire person. I'm just fragmented pieces floating around and nothing fits together. All Oswald cares about anymore is power, he was the one person I could always count on and now I'm not entirely convinced he'd even think twice before using me as a stepping stone."

Her mind drifted back to when he'd tried to get her to plunge a knife in to him to get his point across and get what he wanted. She wasn't sure of too many worse feelings than looking into the eyes of someone you love and care about, while they are so easily manipulating you.

"And then Falcone wants to mold me into the perfect little solider. I'm too emotional, he says. Victor thinks I'm entirely useless. My little brother asks me questions all the time about my life, questions that I can't answer –but it's not like I can keep him in the dark forever. And then Harvey-" Her voice grew even more hoarse and she tried to clear her throat, "Says he loves and that he wants to be with me… all I have to do is change everything I am."

As she raised her hands to angrily swat the tears still rolling down her cheeks, Jim's eyes landed on her bruised hand again. Slowly he looked away from her, clearly able to see that she didn't want anyone to see her cry. He quietly empathized, "Sounds like you're being pulled in a lot of directions."

"Like a thousand different directions." She agreed with a rushed nod, "And no matter what I do, or what direction I take… I'm going to end up losing someone I love and it just… it makes me so sick, because I put up with so much from the people I care about. So how is it that I always end up being the one that no one really wants or cares enough to stick around for; why is it that who I am, is never good enough for anyone?"

His gaze fell to the floor, she had questions that he couldn't begin to have the answers too.  
But he was really starting to see her differently, gain a better understanding of why she acted the way she did.

Some of it he, himself, could relate to. Growing up he'd always resented his father's strength, felt like he never fully measured up to what was expected of him. Even after being successful in his own life, even being named a war hero when he was in the army –there was still something inside of him that never felt like it was enough.

"Look…" He breathed, finally looking back over in her direction, "Despite what you try to make people believe, you're human." With a slight shrug he added, "If you keep letting yourself be stretched too thin for everyone around you, there's eventually going to be nothing left."

"Why are you even being nice to me?" She asked, wiping the last of her tears from her reddened cheeks as the water finally stopped raining from her bloodshot eyes, "You think I'm a monster."

"I never said that." He was quick to defend.

"But you think it."

"I don't." He tried to assure her, his eyes briefly locking with hers as he spoke, "You're not a monster."

"Yeah?" She scoffed, "Try telling Harvey that, cause the way he looked at me up in the hospital room…" Her voice trailed off as she felt her eyes starting to burn again, and she swore herself off of crying.

Raising her head, she turned some on the step to face him better as she realized out loud, "Most people run away from danger, and they can't understand why someone would be drawn to it." Motioning to him she continued, "But you get it. I mean you picked a career where your job is to literally run towards danger."

"And when someone doesn't understand that…" Running her tongue over her lips, she gave another small shrug, "They just can't understand it."

The whole time she'd been in Harvey's hospital room, she'd been convincing herself that once he woke up, they'd somehow be okay again –even if it took a while to get there.  
She'd expected him to be more than upset and angry over what happened, but she didn't expect him to act the way he had towards her.

She wanted to push it off to the medicine they'd given him, or the concussion he'd suffered. But she could see it in his eyes, when he told her all the bad in his life now was her fault –that somewhere, even if it was buried deep down; he believed it.

And as she'd slowly left the room, giving him every chance to take what he'd said back, it was the loneliest feeling in the world. Being in the same room with the person she'd fallen in love, wanting nothing more than to help and comfort him –when all he wanted was for her to leave.

Slowly Jim nodded, his forehead lining as he stared back at her, knowing exactly what she was talking about.  
Though it had been quite some time ago that Barbara had left town, leaving him nothing more than a note saying she just couldn't stay there anymore, it still weighed on his mind. Even after he'd called and left a message pleading for her to come back, even opening up and admitting he didn't think he could do this without her –she stayed gone.

And while a part of him couldn't blame her, after seeing what she'd seen and coming close to paying with her life for being in a relationship with him, he could understand why she'd have ran. It seemed to come back to what Bird had said, that some people run to danger while other flock in the opposite direction. Barbara couldn't understand his reasoning and motivations to stay there, to continue on the path he'd started with all the risks and hazards it posed.

Lee so far seemed to be a bit more understanding of it than Barbara had been, but he could still see it in her face –that it was something she couldn't fully wrap her head around either.

Bird didn't miss the look of pain in his eyes, she wasn't sure what he was thinking about, but she knew that expression. She'd seen in the mirror more times than she could begin to count –that exact same lonely, broken appearance.

"It's lonely." She breathed with a nod, her breath catching in her throat when their eyes met, she managed to add in a whisper, "Running in the opposite direction as everyone else."

"It is." He agreed, his own voice barely loud enough for her to hear, and before he could stop himself his eyes dropped to her lips, before raising back up to meet hers.

"Sometimes, you don't even want to." Her voice was somehow even quieter, slowly becoming aware of just how close his face was to hers, swallowing hard she continued, "But the danger pulls you in anyways."

Her eyes roamed over his face and she just barely caught her breath when her heartbeat grew uneven as she found herself drawn deeper into the moment with him, their faces even closer than before.

So close, that his lips just barely brushed against hers as he added, "Even when all you want to do is run the other way…"

There was barely any space left between them, all thoughts and reasoning seemed to evade Bird in those moments, the only thing she was aware of was him.  
The same could be said for Jim, when the rest of the world seemed to blur around them and he leaned in further, capturing her lips in a kiss.

No longer aware of anything around them, they were entirely lost in the moment with each other. His hands tangled in her soft hair, pulling her closer and not letting her go.  
Her mouth hungrily moved with his, welcoming the escape and distraction from the pain she'd been in.

The reality of what was happening didn't hit either of them until the kiss was broken, and they sat staring wide eyed at each other, neither of them quite able to find words yet.

Bird grabbed onto the railing beside her and pulled herself to her feet, still wearing the same shocked expression in complete disbelief over what had happened.

"I'm sorry." Jim apologized, also getting to his feet and facing her. He wasn't entirely sure himself what had happened, just that it shouldn't have happened. He was starting up a new relationship with Lee and Bird was with Harvey.

"No, no. no…" Bird breathed, her eyes clamping shut as she shook her head back and forth, "This can't… this didn't happen."

"Yeah, it sort of did." He stated, glancing down to the floor as he spoke.

"No." She argued, "Harvey is laying up there in a hospital bed and you've got… what's her name?"

"Lee."

"Yes, exactly! You've got a Lee!" She whisper yelled at him, jabbing a finger in his direction as if the blame fell squarely on him and she wasn't a willing participant.

"It's complicated…" He mumbled his recently overused catch phrase for whenever her name was brought up, before finally sighing an admission, and rubbing his forehead as he spoke "I've got a Lee."

"I'm upset… I'm in a bad place, and people do stupid things when they're in bad places." She scrambled to say, with a million other reasons running through her mind as she started down the stairs to get away from him and outside for fresh air.

It felt different from when she kissed Harvey and it was certainly a different feeling then when Oswald had planted one on her at the club when they'd had too much drink. Shaking the thoughts from her head, she nearly missed a step and lost her balance –but luckily was able to grab onto the railing and stop herself before she fell.

Leaning over the railing to see she'd stopped on the flight of stairs beneath the one they'd been sitting in, Jim watched and listened as he heard her mumbling several more excuses for what had happened between them, with her voice gently echoing off the walls around them, he could just barely make out some of what she was saying.

From what he could hear, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself that it was all his fault.  
Which, he was willing to accept his part in the blame –but he wasn't going to let her turn this into a situation where she thought herself to be blameless.  
It takes two to tango, after all.

His thoughts also kept being pulled back to how she'd reacted when he'd asked about her bruised and slightly swollen hand, how quick she'd been to name off one excuse after another.

"You're just full of excuses today, aren't you?" He called down to where she was still standing.

Taking a few steps back, she jerked her head up to look at where he was on the landing above her and the expression on her face turned to a scowl, before reminding him in a less than friendly tone, "This never happened."

 **~(Later that night)~**

"You really think I should?" Barbara questioned, looking down to her cosmopolitan, as she sat at a table across from Bird.

"Yes." Bird nodded, "It's your apartment, B. You need to take it back."

"I don't know…" She breathed, "I told you about that girl picking up the phone when I called."

Drinking down the last of her drink, Bird said, "If that's the case we'll just kill her."

"That's really not funny coming from someone who has killed people." Barbara said with a laugh that faded when Bird shrugged and said, "Maybe it wasn't meant to be funny."

Staring down to her empty glass, Bird swallowed hard. Since leaving the hospital, she'd wandered the streets some before ending up at Harvey's apartment –where she'd gathered some of his things and left them with a nurse at the hospital.

It was then that she'd been slapped in the face with the realization that she really didn't anyone to turn to.  
It was something she'd been saying all day, but it was still a different kind of cross to bear when she was left alone out in the Gotham cold.

At the end of it all, the only person she could think to call was Barbara Kean –possibly the only other person in the city just as broken and miserable as she, herself was.  
Misery loves company after all.

Of course, within the first few minutes of meeting her at a bar for drinks, Barbara had brought up how much she missed Jim and Bird was reminded of how he'd kissed her at the hospital.  
The thoughts were immediately followed by an overwhelming feeling of guilt for not only letting it happen in the first place, but also withholding the information from her new friend that Jim was seeing someone.

No wonder Harvey ordered her out of his hospital room, she was apparently an even worse person than she'd thought.

Drinking down the last of the contents from her own glass, Barbara said with a new found confidence, "Let's go. I'm taking my apartment back… I love my apartment."

When they reached her place, Barbara kicked off her shoes just inside of the door and flipped the light on. Looking around she saw obvious traces that someone had been there recently.

Nearly knocking over a lamp when she switched it on, Barbara led Bird into the living room where they found Selina Kyle and Ivy Pepper camped out on the couch. Both young teens stared back at them with an equal amount of shock.

"Hi…" Barbara breathed, looking between them.

Slowly turning her head to look at Selina, Ivy complained, "I told you someone would come home."

"Where's Jim?" Barbara asked, her words a little slurred.

"He dropped off his keys, like last week." Selina replied, giving a small wave to Bird.

Looking beside her Barbara asked, "Did you hear that? He dropped his keys off… like last week."

"I heard it." Bird nodded, for a moment worrying it was going to send her new friend into a downward spiral until the blonde let out a huff and shrugged, "So screw him anyway then, right?"

With that she picked up the open box of cereal off the coffee table and dropped onto the couch beside Ivy, and started to eat some of the cereal from the box.

Bird sat down on the other couch facing her, and Selina climbed back up on the armrest she'd been spending the night crouched on so far.

"So who are you guys?" Barbara questioned, her voice muffled from the food. Looking at her friend she asked, "Do you know them?"

"I do." Bird nodded, seeming amused at the little gathering that was now taking place At this point any distraction was a welcome one, and she was quickly realizing it must have been one of them who'd picked up the phone when Barbara had called.

She hadn't thought Jim would bring someone he was seeing to his ex-girlfriend's apartment, but then again she didn't peg him as the type to kiss her in a stairwell at the hospital either.

Letting out a sigh at herself and forcing the thoughts of him from her head, "This is Selina." She introduced, nodding to the girl at the end of the couch she was on. "And the redhead next to you is Ivy."

"Ah." Barbara breathed, "That's nice."

Ivy looked to Selena with slightly widened eyes, wondering if they were in trouble for being caught there and hoping no one would call the police on them.

Picking up the jar of peanut butter she'd been eating from, Selina clanked the spoon against it and looked around as she asked, "You want us to leave?"

"No." Barbara answered, passing the cereal box over to Ivy and saying, "It's nice to have people around and I don't have many friends. What about you, B? You want them to go?"

Bird laughed at Barbara referring to her with the exact same nickname she'd been using for her, "They can stay, I'm in the same boat with you, after all. The last girl I made friends with was killed."

"How did she die?" Ivy questioned, as Selina side-eyed Bird from where she was perched.

"Choked to death." Bird answered in a dry tone.

"Hey!" Barbara exclaimed, seeming suddenly hit with a wave of excitement, "You guys wanna order Chinese? We could rent a movie off cable!"

 **~()~**

"Couldn't sleep either?" Barbara asked, walking into her kitchen to find Bird sitting on the counter eating left over, cold, lo mein noodles with chopsticks from the box.

"Nope." She admitted, "I don't think I'm ever in bed this early anyways."

"Me either, even when Jim had to get up early for work I couldn't fall asleep before midnight." Watching Bird eating she got a sad look in her eyes and laughed, "You know, every time we'd order Chinese, Jim would always have to use a fork. I tried for twenty minutes one day and he never could get the hang of using chopsticks."

Sticking the chopsticks back in the soft noodles, no longer able to stomach the thought of food when Barbara always found a way to bring Jim back into the conversation, Bird asked, "Hungry, B?"

With a dramatic shrug she took the box and leaned up against the counter as she situated the sticks in her hand and said, "Thanks, B."

"You can't call me B." Bird laughed, "That's what I've been calling you and you can't just recycle it for me."

Cracking a smile, Barbara argued, "I can too and I like having the same nickname."

The kitchen fell into silence before Barbara finally said, "I'm sorry about what happened with Harvey, the things he said were awful and you didn't deserve it."

Kicking her legs as they hung off the counter top she sighed, "No, I deserved it."

Hearing her friend's voice crack, Barbara looked up and said, "It's at least nice to know I'm not the only one here who bawls like a baby when their heart is broken. I was beginning to think you were incapable of crying… when I first left Jim, crying was about the only thing I could find strength to do.

"I hate crying." Bird admitted, her jaw tensing as she tried to hold back the tears, "Especially in front of people… it's a weakness."

"It's an emotional reaction." She argued.

"It's a weakness."

"Then I'm weak." Barbara shrugged, "Just another flaw I guess."

Stabbing the sticks around in the noodles for a while she finally took a deep breath and said, "Maybe I really am weak. I mean, I built my entire life around Jim and once he was out of it… even though I'm the one who left, I could barely function. Being with Renee sorta filled the void, but it wasn't the same."

"I have my own life." Bird reasoned, "I just… I love him so much and I loved waking up beside him in the morning and falling asleep in his arms. It's the craziest thing because I lived for so long without that and now I can't imagine not having him there..."

"I miss that too." Barbara quietly whispered.

"Whatever though, right?" Bird said with a bitter laugh, "I guess it's better that this happened now… I kept holding onto him and his light like it would drown out my darkness, but I feel like maybe my darkness was dimming his light."

"Darkness isn't always bad." Barbara reasoned, "Sometimes it's hard to find your way in the dark, but it's a lot less scrutinizing than trying to walk around in the light. You can be naked in the dark, have everything out on display."

 **~()~**

Bird blew out a sigh as she walked through the room and ran her fingers over the gathered leather covered panels lining the walls. The lighting in the center of the room reflected up off the nearly spotless, reflective black tiling that covered the floor.

In the direct center of the room was a sleek back bench styled leather couch and a fully glass low sitting coffee table in front of it.

As she ran her fingers over a part of the wall that felt different under her touch, she pushed in and there was a mechanical noise before the paneling moved and shifted all of the room, each leather faced panel turned and revealed neatly organized displays of every type of gun she could imagine.

"Whoa…" She breathed, turning in a slow circle to take it all in. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Of course she'd seen large amounts of gun shipments coming and going through her criminal work in Gotham.

But this wasn't just a large collection of weapons, it was beautiful. No two guns were the same, and they were all meticulously cleaned and polished –reflecting the light like they were carved from glass.

Walking over she picked up one of the hand guns and felt the weight of it in her hand, just as she was putting it back, the door opened and she turned around.

Tilting her head slightly to the right side, Bird greeted, "Hi there."

Victor Zsasz stared back to her with a stunned expression, looking back through the door he'd just came in he asked, "How did you get in here?"

"Scaled the side of the building… broke in through your bedroom window." She admitted with a shrug, "Didn't this place use be where they'd print the Gotham Gazette?"

"A long time ago." He stated, still not moving from where he was standing, but he seemed to be irritated that she had one of his guns in her hands.

"Strange." She breathed, looking over to the black iron spiral stair case she'd come down from, "Your house is perfectly square."

Bird had quietly left Barbara's apartment once she'd fallen asleep on the couch across from the one the young teens were sleeping on. She'd gone home to her apartment and cleared out every single pill and joint she could find, she was sure after the profuse amount of alcohol that she'd poured down the drain in her kitchen would leave the place smelling like a bar for weeks.

After that she'd headed to the building Victor had converted into his living quarters. She'd followed him home once, not long after he'd broken into Harvey's apartment.

Fair was fair, she thought –he knew where she spent her time.

Stepping further into the downstairs he took his jacket off and laid it on the couch, before shrugging out of his cross-back double shoulder holster and gently laying it down on the glass table to where it didn't even make a sound.

Finally unable to take it any longer, he charged towards her and pulled the gun from her hands, wiping off all the smudges before securely placing it back in it's proper place.

Turning to face her, he asked, "Why are you here?"  
It was just one of the many questions circling around in his head –the other ones at the top of the list was how she even knew where he lived and how she'd found the hidden switch to the wall panels.

"If I ask you something, will you be honest with me?" She pulled in a shaky breath, knowing his answer to the question she had to ask would dictate how the rest of the conversation would go, and whether it ended in conversation or blood being spilled.

"Yes." He answered, lying wasn't one of his fortes anyways. He didn't see a point to it.

"Did you hurt Harvey Dent?" She asked, her voice calm and emotionless as she questioned, "Were you one of the guys who hurt him?"

"No. I was sent after you this morning –not after him." Victor answered.

"Thank you." Bird simply answered, crossing the room to look at another display and he stood, turning in place to follow her with his eyes.

Pulling in a ragged breath she finally turned back his direction and admitted, "It's not natural talent, you know; my fighting skills and knowledge of weapons, on the spot thinking of battle strategy, I worked my ass off to learn everything I know. I fought so hard to get to where I am."

"And you broke into my house to tell me this?" He questioned tilting his head with disbelief.

Ignoring his statement she ran her tongue over her bottom lip and said, "I used to be pretty great and now… I'm in a haze all the time. I can't think straight most days and you wouldn't believe the dose of sleeping medicine I use to get to sleep at night."

Looking at him, she considered that from the look he was giving her, if he had eyebrows the right one would be halfway up his forehead by now.

He was staring at her like she was a lunatic, breaking into his house to tell him about her drug dependency. Though, her next admission would only further confuse him.

"Now I'm just out of control, and I don't just mean the drugs and booze either. My entire life has spun into chaos. I kissed Jim Gordon and then spent the night with his ex-girlfriend-"

"You what?" He cut her off.

When he stared blankly back at her, she realized how that sounded and quickly added, "I didn't mean it that way... we're friends, that's all."

"You're the one who brought it up." He pointed out to her, still at a total and complete loss as to why she was there to spill her problems.  
He was an assassin, not a therapist.

"The point is… I don't know what's wrong with me." She admitted.

"Neither do I." Victor spoke up, "But I'm sure that is one very long list."

Ignoring his remark and recalling his words she said, "But now, look at me. I'm a stupid little girl playing with toy guns."

"Don't touch that." He threatened, darting over to her when she started to reach for another of his precious guns.

Holding her hands up in surrender, she walked away from him over to another panel and inspected the weapons.

She stayed quiet for so long, just staring ahead of her that he finally asked, "Bird?"

"My technique is sloppy." Bird said, turning to face him as she pointed out, "You told me that."

"I was right." Victor stated.

"Exactly. My technique is sloppy, I'm weak... I've been reduced from something that felt like part-machine to someone who cares too much for their own good. I want you to teach me how to not be weak anymore."

Slowly he stepped closer to her, a look of amusement in his dark eyes as he repeated, "Teach you?"

When she nodded, he grinned as he asked, "To be an effective killer?"

"To be great again." She confidently answered, "I'm already a killer and now it's my job, it's my life."

"Everything about your life is wrong for this kind of work. " He explained, "You're too arrogant to follow orders correctly, you feel too much and don't think enough. Your relationships hold you back… you don't even eat the right foods to keep your body strong."

"So make me a grocery list." Bird answered, not wavering from her stare.

Stepping closer to her, he seemed to speak in sync with his footsteps as he continued, "Being a weapon isn't a job… it's life."

He stopped just in front of her, clearly not sure how much to believe in what she was telling him.  
After all, she always seemed to say one thing and do the opposite.

Stepping even closer to prove she wasn't scared and so he could see how serious she was, the look in her eyes was dark as she said, "Teach me."

* * *

 **A/N – I don't think I even realized how much happened in this chapter until I read back over it. :p  
So much went down and I'm a little nervous –but hoping you all enjoyed the update!**

 **Thanks to: Loopylucymac, SwingingOnAStar, Snuffles awesome, Love. Fiction. 2016, Miss E Charlotte and to Melody Jane for reviewing. :)**

 **As always, you can find me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent), and I'd also like to thank everyone who was favorited and/or added this story.**


	39. Sold my Soul

**XXXIX**

 _"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies." -Aristotle_

* * *

 **~(A month later)~**

"What's the point of an apology? I'm dead anyways." The man said, as his fearful gaze fell back to his rope bound wrists.

"Falcone wants an apology." Bird said with raised eyebrows as she stared down the man knelt at the edge of the dock. Her eyes looked out over the usually dark water, which seemed ever more treacherous in the dim glow of the evening. Letting out a sigh she said, "Come on, Matty, you're dead anyways. Might as well go out with a clear conscience."

"I was only trying to-" He began to defend his actions until Bird kicked one of the cinder blocks off the edge of the dock that was chained to his lower half, and Matty let out a terrified gasp and fought against the pull towards the water it was putting on him.

"You refused to pay your tariffs… and some of your guys have been talking about you wanting to take over." Bird explained, walking to the other side of him and kicking another block off into the water, making him struggle more to stay up on the wood instead of falling into the freezing cold water.

Sweat was beading across his forehead and pooling on his upper lip, as he struggled and with his face in a grimace he hissed between his teeth, "You want to kill me, bitch? Fine! Go ahead, get it over with but I'm not going to spend my last minutes on this earth as a coward pleading for my life!"

With a smirk, Bird stepped forward and kicked another block into the water and this time his body started to slide backwards towards the water, "Wait, wait, wait!" He screamed growing evermore panicked as he grabbed at the wood with his bound hands and tried to plant his shoes firmly against the edge.

"Thought you just wanted to get this over with?" She smirked, placing her boot against the next block she'd neatly lined up at his sides, with a smile on her lips that chilled him to the core she added, "Bitch."

With the addition of the next block breaking the surface of the water, his terror and dire situation fully came to light and his body shook as he struggled to stay on the dock with every single muscle in his body.

When he saw her going to kick another block into the river, he screamed, "No! No! Wait, Wait… tell Falcone –t-tell him I'm sorry!"

Kneeling down in front of him to make eye contact, she smiled widely as she cooed, "See? It wasn't that hard was it?" As she went to stand back up she patted the top of his head and added, "Good boy."

Letting out a small sigh of relief as if his apology was going to spare his life, he lowered his head and tried to catch his breath, but the reprieve was short lived when she kicked the next block in and with it his body dropped from the edge of the dock and he barely had time to grasp onto the edge and keep his head up –a difficult task with his wrists being bound.

Gasping and fighting for a breath while he struggled to stay above the surface he pleaded with her for mercy, but was just met by a blank expression as she stood in place and watched him fight a losing battle.

Hearing someone clear their throat from behind her, Bird turned around to see Victor, his black clothes had even darker blotches on them from the blood of his latest victim.

"Hello." She greeted, with a smile before glancing behind her to the still struggling man.

His dark gaze moved past her briefly to the man fighting for his life, before he looked back to Bird and instructed, "Hold out your hand."

When she did as she was told, he dropped something into her gloved hand as he said with a grin, "A present."

Looking down to a pair of black diamond cufflinks, with fresh blood adding a splash of red to the silver setting, she excitedly exclaimed, "Ooh… shiny!" Glancing back to him she asked, "For me?"

Having lifted them off his last target with the knowledge of how much Bird adored and collected shiny objects, he nodded.

"Thank you." She smiled, tucking them into her jacket pocket, while Matty looked between them like they were crazy. Bird had just been handed a gift while he was fighting with every last ounce of his will to not drown.

"What have we here?" Victor questioned, stepping past her to get a better look at the man now trying to plead with them both to just let him go.

"We have a fighter." Bird commented, turning back around to see him.

The pair stood in silence watching as he continued to desperately clutch onto and claw at the edge of the dock, his fingers now leaving trails of blood where he touched from his skin being shredded against the old badly splintered wood.  
Sounds of his pleading filled their ears as he tried to bargain with money and swore he'd leave Gotham that night with his family if they'd just let him live, but it was falling on deaf ears.

Silently, Bird stepped up and kicked the second to last block off the edge and with it his grip slid and he dipped below the water, arms flailing frantically. In his terror ridden panic, he grasped onto the chain attached the last block and pulled it down into the water with him –sealing his own fate.

Bird and Victor stepped to the edge and looked down into the water as the man sank down and eventually no more air bubbles rose to the surface and the water stood still except for the small ripples across the surface from the evening breeze.

Looking over she saw a thin trail of blood that was starting to dry from running down Victor's arm from the latest tally mark he'd carved into the flesh of his arm after the kill he'd completed before meeting up with Bird. They'd both been tasked with a kill that day, and both had been jobs well done.

"Ready to get out of here?" Bird questioned glancing over at him.

Victor nodded, a look of dark excitement brewing in his eyes as he looked back out over Gotham River.

 **~(A few days later)~**

Bird emerged from her bedroom and walked towards the door when she'd heard knocking.

As she pulled the door open, she was met by Harvey Dent –who had an expression on his face like a beaten puppy who'd been left out in the cold rain.

His brown eyes met hers and she couldn't find a single word to say as she internally kicked herself for not looking through the peephole though she wondered if she hadn't answered it if he'd have used the key she gave him.

"May I come in?" He finally questioned when nothing had been said between them.

"Sure." Bird answered, stepping to the side and letting him walk in as she eyed the several bags he was carrying in his hands as he sat them on her coffee table and looked around her apartment.

There were subtle differences he noticed, but most of all the air felt differently to him. It wasn't warm like it had felt to him in the past.  
Looking over to her book case he saw the picture of them together she'd kept there was gone, not that he'd expected it to still be there after everything that happened; but the more he looked around the more he noticed it seemed to be her personal items missing from display.  
Somehow it felt like traces of Bird were missing from her own apartment.

"You're looking a lot better." She finally said, managing a small smile.

"I'm feeling better." He admitted, his eyes still scanning the room as he added, "I'm going back to work next week."

"That's great." She replied sincerely, pulling in a breath and forcing the smile to stay on her face as she asked, "Are you here to pick up your clothes that you left here?"

"No-" He started to say, but she didn't let him say anything further as she cut in, "You sure? I think you pull the look off better than me."

With images in his head of her walking around wearing nothing but one of his shirts, a smile toyed at the corner of his mouth as he argued, "I'm not so sure… I think my shirts looked better on you than me."

Her eyes dropped to the floor as she mentally commanded herself not to smile from the comment. It had been over a month since she'd seen him and it got under her skin that he could still be so charming and almost effortlessly pull her back in.

"Harvey-" She started to say, but he stopped her as he said, "Starling, please hear me out."

Her brows knotted at the sound her name on his tongue, she'd nearly forgotten what it sounded like –or maybe she'd forced herself to forget.

"I'm really glad you're home." He said, somehow finding a smile as he added, "And that you let me in." Taking a moment to clear his throat he explained, "I've tried to call you about a hundred times and I kept coming by, but you weren't home."

"I've been really busy."

"You don't owe me an explanation." He was quick to assure.

"I'm not even sure where to begin, other than to say that I am so sorry for everything I said that day in the hospital to you. I don't even know why I said any of that –I guess I was just in pain and… I hate to admit it, but… I was scared." His eyes fell to the floor as he opened up, "I guess in ways I still am, sometimes I think I'll catch a glimpse of one of their faces in a crowd and it just sends my mind spinning."

"You don't need to worry about ever seeing the two who jumped you again." Bird stated before she could stop herself.

"What does that mean?" He asked.

Not about to tell him that they were no longer walking among the living world, Bird shrugged, "I learned my lesson, Harvey. Had to learn it the hard way, but now I know better than to step out of line."

Seeing the look in her eyes as she spoke made his heart sink, even though she was just in front of him –it felt like she was miles away out of his reach; she looked broken.

"I was wrong." He quickly said, finding it hard to pull oxygen from the air around him, "I was so wrong about everything I said. I know this isn't an excuse but they said with my concussion that it could have caused temporary behavior and personality changes –apparently that's pretty common."

"That's the thing, you weren't wrong. You got hurt… you got the hell beat out of you because of me." Bird pointed out, thinking of how his words reminded her of the same excuses she'd told Jim, when he'd figured out that Harvey was the one who'd left her hand bruised at the hospital.

"No, not because of you, what they did to me was to hurt you –to try and scare you into submission. People like Falcone stay in power because everyone is scared to go against him." Taking in a breath, he added, "Hurting me was an attempt at breaking you… and it kills me to see it worked."

"I'm not broken." Bird argued, "I'm just carefully walking the line until it's time to bring Falcone down –that plan hasn't changed."

"You have." He pointed out.

"Change can be a good thing." Bird countered.

Harvey looked around, getting the feel that she was just arguing with him for arguments sake anymore, "It can, but I'm not so sure it is in this case."

When he saw her starting to open her mouth to argue with him, he held his hands up in surrender and said, "I'm not here to fight."

"Why are you here?" Bird asked, her arms crossing over her chest as she shrugged.

"To tell you I'm sorry for being a world class jerk." Looking down to the bags on the table he continued, "I rented your favorite movie and went to that little shop to get a tin of that strawberry coated popcorn you love and then I ended up driving an hour out of town to that little bakery we went to on our fourth date and picked up those lemon blackberry cupcakes… next thing I knew my backseat was full of your favorite things and I…"  
His voice trailed off as he ran his tongue over his lips and shook his head, "I hate this, I hate waking up without there, and I hate myself for the things I said… I hate not having you in my life."

"That's very sweet." She said with her head tilted to the side before she continued, "But you can keep everything, I can't eat any of it now."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, knowing very well how much she loved all of the food he'd brought.

"I had to change some things around in my life –to make me stronger." She vaguely answered, eyeing the bags before she picked up the tin of strawberry coated popcorn and hugging it against herself on her way to the kitchen.

With an ever-deepening confused expression, Harvey walked behind her coming to a stop dead in his tracks when he saw her kitchen was completely cleared out. All of her counters were empty except for appliances and an antique silver triple-tier fruit display with pearls lining the metal handle of the piece going through the center.

Slowly walking further into the room, he watched as she sat the popcorn tin down next to the toaster, before he reached up and opened a cabinet he'd known to previously be packed with boxes of cereal to see it was now empty.

"What happened?" He asked, his voice barely over a whisper –knowing how she had to have an over flowing kitchen to keep from going into a panic; something stemming from her early childhood where she'd been deprived of food in foster homes and orphanages.

"My friend has these two street kids living with her –I had them come over and take what they wanted from the kitchen. They pretty much cleared everything out… the rest I just threw away." Bird shrugged, turning to face him as she leaned against the counter.

"No… I mean…" He could barely even find his words from the state of shock he was in, "Why would you do that… you weren't happy unless you had enough food on hand to feed a small army." Opening another cabinet to find it was also bare, he questioned, "Do you have any food in here?"

"Of course, I do." She replied, nodding towards the refrigerator as she responded, "Lean proteins and greens mainly."

"Are you happy that way?" He questioned.

"I'm healthy and stronger than I've ever been."

"But are you happy?"

With a shrug she avoided his eyes and there was a twinge of pain in her voice, "Thank you for the gesture, but I think you should probably go."

"I don't want to leave." He admitted, taking a breath and trying to plot what he should say next, but Bird looked up as she said, "I get it, you feel bad because of what you said… it's okay. It hurt to hear, but you were right. I was the dark spot in your life and it's just better if we stay away from each other. Less chance of getting hurt."

"Don't say that." He pleaded, "If it wasn't because of this, then it would have been on the count of something else –do you know how many threats I receive per week from the people I prosecute? A lot of them –but it doesn't scare me away from what I do and I'm not going to let what happened scare me away from being with you either."

"Because you're a man ruled by passion." Bird pointed out with sadness in her eyes, "Passionate about your job and cleaning up Gotham, passionate with love… your passion rules you-"

"What's wrong with passion?" He interrupted.

"It clouds logic." She explained, "A move made from an emotional standpoint and not a logical one is usually the wrong one."

His brows knotted as he stared at her and for a moment she thought he was going to yell at her, but his voice came out steady and calm, riddled with pain as he questioned, "Do you have any idea how you sound right now? What happened to all that talk of weathering storms together, and making it through anything? You promising me that you'd be able to come back from the bad things?"

"I got left alone in the dark." Bird quietly said, appearing unemotional while her heart was thudding painfully hard in her chest.

"Let me fix this." He pleaded, moving closer and putting a hand on the side of her face, gently getting her to look up at him, "Please, don't do this."

"I saw it happen before, to Fish. She'd do something wrong and to get back at her –to put her back in line, Falcone would have whatever man she was seeing severely beaten. A lot of times right in front of her, there in the club. I was probably about seventeen when she warned me against falling in love, told me how nothing ever comes of it but pain." Bird remembered, sighing as she added, "She stopped chasing love, even stopped herself when it fell into her lap –from time to time she'd have men around for company on those cold lonely nights, but she never got attached. I think she still wanted to find it though, I think deep down we're all really searching for love, but maybe it's not fit for everyone. Sometimes, I think it might just be better to pick logic and strength over being in love."

"Love isn't logical though… it is what it is and it's worth the pain worth every single risk-"

"Is it?" She asked, in an airy tone as she tossed her arms out the sides.

"Yes." He confidently answered, "But I didn't know that until I met you."

"Look, I will stop pushing you to talk about your work for Falcone –give you all the freedom you need to do what you need to do. Just let me be here for you. I screwed up with everything I said, just let me make it up to you." He implored, his eyes locked with hers.

"You've said that before and you keep pushing me to talk." She reminded him, "I'm a criminal, Harvey. I don't just work for criminals –I am one. You said that yourself."

"You're trying to turn things around." He stated.

"What if I couldn't turn things around?" She dared to question, "Or even if I didn't want out of organized crime… would you still want me then?"

The expression on his face was difficult for her to read, though she noted how long it was taking him to give her an answer.

Letting out a heavy breath he wouldn't give her a straight answer, "The point is that you're trying to change –that's what matters-"

"That's not really an answer, Harvey." Swallowing hard, she stared up to him, her eyes traveling over his face –god, how she'd missed waking up to that face and seeing the love in his eyes; her heart ached painfully hard inside of her chest and she wasn't even sure how it could still be beating.

Perhaps what hurt most of all was knowing that while she wouldn't change anything about him, that she loved him for all he was, even the darkest parts -and it seemed like he wasn't willing to do the same.

"You're trying to turn things around." He repeated, "You will turn things around, and in the meantime we can stay distracted, go out and do more things. You said yourself things are going to get bad in Gotham before they get any better, so why not steal those moments of happiness where we can?"

"Just think about it?" He softly said when she wouldn't answer, or even make eye contact with him, "It's not exactly our usual type of thing, but I got tickets to this circus that I've heard good things about. It could be fun, you know? I'd really love to go with you… but for now, just hold onto to this while you make up your mind." He said, pulling a ticket from his pocket and laying it on the counter next to where she was leaning.

Taking another look around her kitchen, he said, "I really hope you'll come with me, our tickets are for Friday." His hands gently landed on her sides and slid down to her hips, causing her skin to feel like it caught fire under her clothes as she looked up at him with a broken expression and look of loss in her eyes.  
Leaning down he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, leaving his lips against her skin for a moment before he whispered, "I love you."

Her eyes closed with his words and she didn't open them until she was sure she'd heard her apartment door close as he left.

Finally able to take a breath now that he was gone, she slowly slid down the cabinet until she landed on the floor with her legs out to the sides in front of her. With a loud groan, she tossed her head back against the wood door and stared up to the ceiling.

 **~(The next day)~**

"Don Falcone, you wanted to see me?" Bird questioned, giving a light knock of her knuckles on the door of the room he was in.

"Yes, Bird, come in." He said, motioning with a hand, "Take a seat."

Once she was sitting down facing him, he gave her a smile as he said, "You seem to have adjusted well over this last month."

"Yes." She nodded, not offering up any other information as she sat stiffly in her seat with a near emotionless expression.

"That's good, I'm pleased. Victor seems to think you're fitting in well." He said, before he leaned forward in his seat and said, "You have really redeemed yourself, and as a token of my appreciation, I was hoping you might consider a career change. How would you feel about running the club?"

With a confused expression she asked, "What club?"

"Fish's old spot." He explained.

"But Oswald-"

"Is failing, quite terribly. It's costing more to keep the doors open than he's brought in all month –the books are in the red, people are complaining. Now, I know you were by Fish's side for years –you've bragged to me about you knowledge of how to run the place." He pointed out.

"I see." Bird scoffed, not able to keep the residual anger she felt towards the crime boss in, "Oswald's not able to fill the shoes you gave him, and since I've been a good little girl and met my monthly kill quota –you want to give me a shiny new club? I don't want it."

"Careful." He warned.

Pulling in a deep breath and quickly getting her rage back in check, she changed her tone of voice.

"I appreciate the offer, but I would like to stay where I am. Strangely enough, training and working with Victor has helped me get through some personal things I didn't think I could face and… well, I guess you could say that we've become about as close as anyone could be to being friends with Victor Zsasz." Bird declared, as she further continued, "I like my job, sir. I'm good at what I do."

"You are, you are very good at what I've tasked you with." He agreed, watching her for any sign of bluff as he asked, "You like working alongside Victor?"

"I feel more control over my life than I have in a very long time and I don't want to be shuffled around to something else at this point. I like my job." Her gaze locked with his, and she thought of how one day, hopefully sooner rather than later, she would make him pay for all his trespasses against her. She slyly added, "Everything that's happened has given me a new perspective on life. I've finally gotten my priorities straightened out. I know what I have to do now."

Looking both proud and taken aback by her change of heart, he said, "While I'm pleased with that… the fact remains is that the club is one place that we cannot afford to let go under, we need it up and running under the care of someone who knows what they're doing."

"And what happens to Oswald?" Bird asked.

"Well, we'd find other work for him. You know how men like that are… mostly happy for any scraps sent their way. He's earned a place here, but perhaps one with less responsibilities ." Falcone said, and in response Bird's jaw tensed in anger.

She hadn't seen or even spoken to her best friend since the day he'd came by the hospital to talk her down off a ledge, but she'd still cut anyone down who tried to harm him.

Quickly covering the traces of emotion on her face, she stated, "I want to keep working alongside Victor, but I may have a solution for the club."

When he waved a hand and gestured for her to carry on, she made eye contact and explained, "From what I understand, Victor still has Butch Gilzean. If there's anyone who knows the ins and outs of that club, it's Butch. He was with Fish when they took the territory seven years ago. Let him go. Let him work with Oswald at the club and show him how to run things."

"Are you speaking from a personal or professional standpoint?" He asked her.

"Both." Bird admitted, "Personally, I think he has more than suffered for his role in what happened and I care about him. Butch is like family to me. When I first wound up at the club, I was terrified of guns… after being shot and nearly killed by one. Butch is the one who taught me how to shoot, showed me that as long as I stayed on the right side of a gun –I didn't need to be afraid."

"I'm glad to see you're back to being honest." Falcone nodded, "I had missed this side of you."

With a nod of her own she continued, "From a professional angle, I can promise you, Don Falcone, that Butch will be able to help Oswald return the club to its former glory."

Looking her over for a few moments, he finally conceded, "I will speak to Victor and see if he feels Butch is ready to be released."

 **~()~**

Coming in through the side door, Oswald sighed as he thought of how the doors would open to the club in just a few hours and he was sure to be facing another night with less than a handful of people showing up.

Looking up he saw someone sitting on the bar and paused to stare at the ceiling in irritation, could the men working for him not even keep civilians out of the place until it was time to open the doors?

"Miss?" He huffed, hobbling closer to the bar with an irritated voice he repeated, "Miss?"  
When the woman sitting on the bar paid no attention to him, he did his best to put on a polite smile so he wouldn't chase off any new customers.

"Miss, I'm sorry but we aren't open yet. If you'd like to come back-"

He stopped mid-sentence and his eyes widened as the woman jumped off the bar, and turned around to face him.

"B-Bird?" He stammered, looking her over.

Her normally wavy hair was laying straight and at least a few inches shorter than the last time he'd seen her. She was dressed in all black, with leather boots that went just below her knees and black fingerless gloves on her hands.

"Hello Oswald." She greeted, looking around the club and picking up on all the little differences since Fish had owned the club.

"I like what you've done with the place." She smiled, "Especially all of the blue lighting."

"Lighting?" He nearly gasped, moving closer to her; anger showed in his expression as he hissed from between his teeth, "A month! It's been a month since I've seen or heard from you and you're here to talk about lighting?"  
The angry face gave way to a hurt look in his eyes, "You missed opening night…"

"You wouldn't have wanted me here, trust me. I was in no mood to party, I'd have just brought the mood down." She answered sincerely, "I was in a bad place for a while, sort of shut off from everyone. Threw myself into work."

"Invested in work?" He scoffed, "Last we spoke you said you were being forced to work with Zsasz!"

"Well, lucky for you… I've actually grown fond of both him and the job." She answered, tilting her head to the side as she explained, "Falcone wanted to give me the club, you know?"

"My club?" He asked, wide eyed. "W-what did you say?"

There was a smile on her lips as she answered, "You're my best friend… what do you think I said?"  
Her words should have put his mind at ease, but it was the way in which she spoke them that left him feeling unsettled.

"Hello Penguin!" Victor called out as he walked into the room.

Whirling around, Oswald's eyes widened and he glanced back to Bird before clearing his throat, "Victor, how nice…"

"Don Falcone thinks you're messing up." He stated, slowly walking closer with an amused grin toying at his lips when he saw how nervous Oswald looked. "You don't know how to run a club… your numbers stink."

Irritated, Oswald started to defend, "With all due respect-"

"I didn't come here to talk!" Victor yelled, cutting him off and looking annoyed just from his presence.

"Oh…" Bird breathed, also looking amused as she leaned towards Oswald and teased in a low whisper, "You've done it now…"

His head whipped from side to side as he looked between them.  
It was expected that Victor would be entertained from toying with him and seeing him growing increasingly worried; however, most unsettling of all was how Bird seemed just as amused.

Taking a deep breath, Oswald straightened out his suit and said, "Good manners cost nothing, you know?"

A smile that didn't come off as even an ounce friendly spread over Victor's lips and Oswald took a few steps backwards and closer to Bird.  
He looked at her for any indication as to what was happening or what he should do, but her expression gave nothing away.

"W-what brings you both here?" He finally questioned.

"Relax." Bird said, patting him on the shoulder as she walked past him to stand next to Victor.  
As the two looked in his direction, Victor whistled and Oswald's face contorted as he whispered, "What does that mean?"

Victor's threatening smile grew as he nodded off to the side of the room and Oswald followed the command, gasping when he saw Butch Gilzean.

Knocking into tables and nearly tripping, he hurriedly moved away and sought safety behind Bird.

Seeing his terrified reaction, Victor started to laugh –the menacing sound filled his ears and Oswald's panic continued to grow.

"Relax!" Victor repeated Bird's earlier sentiment, before stating, "He's harmless. Say hi, Butch!"

"Hi." Butch immediately answered.

Slowly, Oswald stepped back up next to Bird and looked between her and Victor waiting on someone to explain what was happening. In his eyes it couldn't be anything good, first he learned that Falcone was wanting to take his club away and now he was in the presence of Fish's most trusted employee and enforcer.

"This is a present, Oswald. A win/win." Bird nodded at him, but he wasn't buying it as he argued, "A present? That's Butch Gilzean."

"Falcone didn't want to throw him away, so I worked on him in my basement." Victor explained, and Bird bit down on the inside of her cheek as Victor continued, "He's a whole new man, right Butch?"

"Yes, sir, Mr. Zsasz." He replied without missing a beat as he looked around the room.  
He wasn't sure how long he'd been locked away in the basement of horrors, but every single day had felt like a year. Time moved so much differently when everyday was filled with nothing but pain.

Now that he was back above ground he'd seen that so much had changed. Oswald was running the club and even more surprising than that; Bird was working beside Zsasz.

"Butch knows the club scene up and down; he'll help you out." Victor said.

"But…" Oswald whined in a distressed tone, "He's Butch Gilzean… he's loyal to Fish Mooney."

"And he'll do exactly what you say." Victor explained, every syllable sharp as he spoke in a prideful tone.

"Really?" Oswald asked, his breathing still erratic from the fear he'd been in.

"Really." Victor answered and Bird slowly nodded in agreement.

"Hey Butch…" Oswald breathed, "Dance for me!"

Unable to defy an order, Butch did as he was told and started dancing in place.

Bird's eyes dropped to the floor and Victor watched Butch continue to dance as he verbally patted himself on the back, "I do good work."

"Alright, come on." Bird complained, clearly not as amused with the situation as the two men were.  
She looked to Oswald, but he was too distracted, his eyes wide and bright like it was Christmas morning and he'd just gotten the present he'd been wanting all year.

"Victor!" She yelled, hoping he'd listen to her better than Oswald had.

With a laugh, Victor held up a hand and said, "That's enough."

Slowing to a stop, Butch reached up and loosened his tie to make it easier to breathe in the stuffy air, he kept his eyes low to avoid making eye contact with anyone.

"He's here to help you… so treat him well." Bird instructed as she looked to Oswald and added, "The books are in the red, if you can't turn this thing around then Falcone's going to take the club from you."

"And what?" Oswald questioned, "Hand it over to you?"

"God, I hope not." She said with a dark laugh, and in a tone that left Oswald unsure if she was joking or speaking the truth when she added, "I'd much rather be torturing and killing."

"Speaking of." Victor said, nodding towards the exit and turning to leave.

"Wait!" Oswald called out after them, glancing back to where Butch was standing as he hobbled towards where the pair had stopped, "Bird…"

He glanced out of the corner of his eyes towards Victor, but when he made no attempt to leave them alone, Oswald sighed, "Must you run off so suddenly?"

His eyes locked with Bird's as he pleaded, "Stay for a drink? It's been far too long."

Victor's eyes darted between them, immediately picking up on Oswald's nervousness and eagerness to speak to Bird –entertained by it, he started to laugh.

Again the sound made Oswald's skin feel like it was practically crawling and he looked over at the hitman, who turned and walked away from them laughing his way all the way out of the door.

"I can't, Oswald." Bird declined, looking around to make sure no one was near them she quietly said, "Falcone is starting to trust me again. I have to stay on point and focused if we're going to tear his empire down."

Looking relieved, his eyes drifted back over her features –even the way she was wearing her makeup was different than before. Most of all he missed her long, free flowing hair. The way that her loose, dark waves would hug her face –when the wind caught her brunette locks, he always thought she looked so free.

Looking relieved he said, "I was beginning to wonder if you were still in there."

"I'm here." She replied with an arched brow.

"I feel I must apologize." He hurried to speak before she got the chance to turn and leave, "You seemed to have misread my intentions when I came to see you last. I was there to be a friend to you and-"

"You know how much I hate it when you give me empty apologies." She cut him off, "You're not sorry, not really."

"It's been over a month!" He reminded her, his voice nasally and there was a hint of whine in his tone, "You wouldn't take my calls, you were never home when I stopped by. I've missed you, Bird."

"Is this the part where I give you one of those ' _it's not you, it's me_ ' speeches?"

His mouth hung open in shock at her words and despondent tone. It wasn't as though forgiveness was one of Bird's fortes, but she'd never stayed angry at him for so long before.

"You speak as though you care nothing for me." He quietly said under his breath, his eyes falling to the floor as he found himself wishing he hadn't chased after her.

"You hurt me, Oswald." She reminded him, "You know as well as I do that I don't have many people I can count on. I hardly have any friends and still, every time I need you to be there for me. The same way I have been there for you –through every up and down for years now, you let me down."

Unable to stop himself, he rolled his eyes at her words. For months on end now, it felt like she'd done nothing but add more people into her life and he longed for the days when he was all she had.

"You have Harvey Dent and Barbara Kean and-" He started to name some of them off, but she didn't let him finish.

"And you're jealous." Bird stated.

Oswald opened his mouth to argue, intending to deny it to the core of his being that he was jealous, but she didn't give him a chance to speak.

"I get it." Bird nodded, "You miss the days when it was just the two of us."

His sad eyes met hers and she gave a weak shrug with her admission, "I miss that too, you know. But what I also miss was you being my friend because that's who we were and not to fill your agenda. You are the single most ambitious person I have ever known, and I love that about you –but I don't love not knowing where we stand. Some days I feel like you'd use me as a stepping stone on your way to the top."

"Bird!" He exclaimed, a pained nose on his lips. Shaking his head back and forth he tried to assure her, "I would never."

"I want to believe that." She whispered, giving a feeble smile when she nodded towards the doors and reminded him, "Victor's waiting on me, I should get going."

"When will I see you again?" He questioned, his eyes darting back and forth over her face.

"Not sure." She shrugged, looking around as she complimented, "I really do like how everything looks."

"Thank you." He accepted the compliment with a curt nod, though his breathing was still erratic and it felt like the foundation he was standing on was being chipped away bit by bit.

As she turned to leave out the doors Victor had gone through she turned back and called out, "I'm serious… be nice to Butch and listen to what he has to say."

"Nice?" Oswald muttered under his breath.

Just barely able to hear him, Bird spun back around and with anger in her tone, she nodded, "Yes, nice. Be nice to him, Oswald. Butch's only crime was being loyal to Fish Mooney, and he's paid dearly for that."

"Yes, but-"

Walking back up to him, Bird abruptly cut him off, "Try not to forget that some of us are still paying for where our loyalties lie."

"If you'll just allow me to speak to Don Falcone on your behalf…" His voice trailed off when she started shaking her head back and forth, clearly not listening to him.

"I don't need your help, Oswald." She gave an indifferent shrug, before leaving him with a parting sentiment, "Take care of yourself."

* * *

 **A/N- I hope you all liked the chapter! Bird's hours spent working and training with Zsasz changed her a bit, huh?**

 **I'd like to thank: Loopylucymac, Snuffles awesome, Saskia D. Fox, Love. Fiction. 2016, SwingingOnAStar, MissEasilyObsessed, and to Miss E Charlotte for reviewing the last chapter.**

 **Also glad to see almost everyone was on board with the Bird x Jim moment from the last chapter. :)  
**


	40. Hey Jealousy

**XL**

" _This was a new skill she'd acquired, the ability to look, to the outside world, utterly serene and even cheerful, while, in her skull, all was chaos."_ _― Dave Eggers, The Circle_

* * *

Bird hugged her coat against her as she walked along under the strings of orb lighting amongst the traveling trailers, R.V.'s and brightly colored tents belonging to the circus workers.

As she walked along she slowed to a stop next to a medium sized flatbed truck with several square bales of straw around it with a few stacked like stairs against it.

Her head cocked to the side when she thought she saw the bottom of a high-heeled shoe sticking out from under the dark tarp spread over it. Upon closer inspection she could have sworn the shape under the tarp could pass for a body.

"Someone under there?" She asked, looking closer to see if there was a person under the tarp, when she didn't get an answer and the shoe covered foot didn't move her eyes widened as she realized if it was a body –that body wasn't breathing.

Reaching out a hand she started to grab onto the tarp to see what was underneath it.

"What are you doing?"

Spinning around, startled from the interruption she let out a small gasp as she stared at the person who'd interrupted her –a boy with red hair and green eyes who looked to be close to her age.

"I, uh…" She breathed, glancing back to the tarp, but before she could finish her thought he said, "You're not supposed to be back here."

"I got lost." Bird lied, in truth she'd been wandering around the living quarters of the circus workers trying to make up her mind whether she was really ready to see Harvey and wondered if he was expecting to pick things back up where they'd left off.

"You have to go past at least two signs saying back here is off limits to circus attendees." He pointed out with a look on his face to show he didn't believe a word of what she was saying.

Flashing him a pearly white smile she conceded, "Caught me. I'm sort of avoiding someone."

His eyes darted down to the tarp before they went back to her face he offered a smile and apologized, "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude." Nodding around to all of the traveling homes set up he explained, "This is our home, everything we have is right here and we've had some thefts from outsiders."

"I understand." She nodded, returning the smile, before her attention was drawn back to the possible dead body under the tarp.

His eyes widened as he watched her reaching for the tarp again.

Rushing forward he, stammered, "I-I'm Jerome." He put his hand out in front of her to stop her from raising the tarp.

Her brown eyes locked with his wide green eyes and she accepted the handshake and said, "I'm Bird."

With a raised eyebrow he asked, "Bird? Your name is Bird?"

"My name is Bird." She nodded, looking down to where he was still shaking her hand and clearly trying to keep her from looking under the tarp.

Her eyes narrowed inquisitively as she asked, "If everyone is getting ready for the show… why are you wandering around out here?"

"I'm not a performer." He explained, remembering her earlier admission as he asked, "Who are you avoiding?"

There was a bright look in her eyes as she shook her head back and forth, clearly not looking to tell her personal business to a stranger.

"I could show you where to buy a ticket for tonight?" He offered, his eyes falling back to the tarp.

"Got one." She declined holding it up in the air and giving him another curious look before she said, "I should probably go find a seat before all the good ones are taken."

Stepping to the side to let her through and waited until she was several steps away before calling out, "Enjoy the show!"

Once she was out of sight, Jerome let out the breath he'd swore he'd been holding since he saw her nearly uncover his mother's body from the tarp. Checking his surroundings, he pulled the edge of the tarp down making sure her shoe was covered, before he started tossing some of the straw from the ground over the tarp to better conceal his secret.

Stepping out onto the main walkway, Bird spotted Harvey next to the popcorn vendor where they'd agreed to meet up at when they'd spoken on the phone. He'd tried to insist picking her up for their date, but she'd declined the offer, knowing if things went south or she wanted a quick escape that she'd need her own car there.

Seeing her at the same time, he started towards her wearing a relieved smile as he admitted, "I was beginning to think you'd stood me up."

"No." she assured him glancing back in the way she'd walked from and thinking about her encounter with Jerome as she said, "I was just…well, it doesn't matter. I'm here now, right?"

"Right." He agreed, looking her over as he said, "Thank you for coming tonight."

Looking down to the ticket in her hands she gave a small shrug as she admitted, "I almost didn't. I mean, all week I've been trying to weigh the pros and cons… but when it came down to it…" She shrugged not sure what else to say.

The truth was she'd been trying to talk herself out of agreeing to the date since the night he'd showed up at her apartment, but when she'd called him to say she couldn't make it –he wouldn't take no for an answer. Damn lawyers, she thought, always so smooth and saying the right things.

"I'm just happy the pros weighed out the cons." He admitted, leaning his head down when she diverted her eyes from him and asked in a much softer voice, "The pros did win, right?"

Glancing back up she shrugged, "The cons were that I don't really like events where everyone is all crammed together in tight quarters, honestly I'm not a big fan of clown make-up, I don't much trust the food from these vendors –I feel like everyone's hands have been on it and I saw this documentary once about contaminated food…"

Her voice trailed off when she saw the disgusted look growing on his face, the same look he'd get every time she'd start talking about these sort of conversation topics. A smile toyed at the corner of her mouth as she thought of how much she missed him, missed all of his expressions –even the one of disgust where his nose was all wrinkled and his eyes were barely open.

"Needless to say, the list of cons was a long one." She sighed.

"And the pros?" He asked.

"The pros were that I'd get to see you." She admitted, before glancing up and adding, "And I happen to be a fan of twinkly lights –especially in large quantities."

Her words put a smile on his face and he reached down, taking her hand in his and intertwining their fingers. The feeling of his flesh against hers –even their hands, made her stomach jump like always.  
A part of her had convinced herself over the month they'd spend apart that he couldn't possibly have the same effect over her –but with each passing second it was becoming clear that he still did.

There was a part of her that wanted to just jump back into sharing life with him, there was no denying she still loved him and she yearned to get back to the way they'd been; but, their time apart had done a number on both her heart and head and she wasn't even sure if she was capable of the same type of relationship now.

Looking down to their hands, she knew she needed to tell him that just because they'd gone out for the night, didn't mean they were back together –that she was still trying to get a feel on their situation.

"Harvey-" She started to say, pulling in a deep breath.

Seeming to sense that whatever she was about to say, he wouldn't like, he gave her another hopeful smile and repeated, "I'm happy you're here."

"Are you though?" She softly asked, "I'm still the same person, you know? And even though this place is full of twinkly lights and the paper gives this circus rave reviews; even if we have a really good time together tonight –tomorrow I'm going back to work for Falcone and you'll be putting people just like me on trial for their crimes."

"You're not like them." He argued, causing her to shake her head.  
Half the time she really wanted to believe he loved in spite of what he viewed as faults, but at other times she was sure he was in denial.

"We'll work through it." He added, "We'll figure things out as we go."

"Just like that, huh? She questioned, "All is forgiven? And we what? Just jump back in head first?"

"You have every right to still be mad at me for what I said to you-"

"I'm talking about me, Harvey." She explained, "And the fact that you got your ass kicked because of the people I've surrounded myself with. Knowing everything you know now, knowing that just being with me is a risk… can you really look at me the same way?"

"What happened isn't your fault." He said, giving a shrug like all was right in the world again, he promised, "I can deal with everything, I've been dealing with it and I don't blame you for any of it. So yeah, I guess all is forgiven."

"So you think we can just work through anything together?" She held back a laugh as she spoke.

"Yes." He nodded.

Deciding to both call his bluff and test the waters, Bird questioned, "Even if I kissed someone else?"

Nodding, Harvey opened his mouth to agree, but when her words finally sunk it he asked, "Wait? What?"

His eyes scanned over her face as he asked, "You're speaking hypothetically, right?"  
Without giving her a chance to answer he questioned, "Or did you really kiss someone… and if so, who are we talking about?"

Bird's eyes dropped to the gravel path and she pulled in a breath, just as she was getting ready to see if honestly really is the best policy, Harvey said, "Jim?"

"Oh my god…" Bird breathed, looking up to him as she started to ask, "How did you-"

"Jim!" Harvey called back out as he spotted the detective, waving a hand in the air to get his attention.

Bird spun around and saw Jim with a tall, pretty brunette at his side and let out a relieved sigh at realizing that Harvey was simply calling out a greeting to him, and didn't know about the kiss in the stairway.

Looking down to where Bird was now standing at his side, Harvey asked, "What?"

"Nothing." She said with a nervous smile, hoping he hadn't heard her and was on the verge of figuring things out, before lying, "It was just a hypothetical scenario."

The feeling of reprieve was as short lived one when Jim started walking in their direction and in an instant her mind drifted back to what happened in the stairwell and how she'd spent the last month avoiding him at all costs.

The truth was, she still wasn't entirely ready to face him again. It was much easier to pretend nothing had happened when she didn't have to see him.

"Jim, hey." Harvey greeted, shaking Jim's hand with a smile.

Despite trying to not look her direction, Jim looked over to where Bird was staring at him with her eyes a little wide and it took him a few moments to pull his gaze away.

Trying to act normal, Jim gave Bird a small nod before he looked back to Harvey and asked, "How are you getting along?"

"A lot better." Harvey smiled, "Back to work on Monday."

Bird's eyes fell to where Jim was holding hands with the brunette standing next to him, who was wearing a friendly smile with the lights above making her eyes sparkle and Bird instantly didn't want to like her.  
It was because of her friendship with Barbara, she told herself, that's why she didn't like seeing Jim with someone else.

The woman cleared her throat and Jim gave a small sheepish smile in her direction, realizing how rude he'd been by not introducing her, "This is… Dr. Leslie Thompkins."

With raised eyebrows Bird wasn't able to hold her tongue and countered, "You refer to your _new_ girlfriend as Dr. Leslie Thompkins?"

With a laugh, Lee said, "I'm not new… well, not that new." Looking to Jim; she laid her hand on his arm and smiled before looking back to the couple in front of her and saying, "Please, call me Lee."

Bird's eyes narrowed slightly at her, she was just as friendly and charming as she was beautiful.

As she reached her hand out to them, Jim continued the introduction, "This is Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent and Starling Wayne-"

"Bird." She interrupted.

As Lee shook her hand she questioned, "Bird? Sort of unusual… but I like it. Bird, it is."

Her words earned a small smile from Bird and as Lee looked between the couple, she could see clear traces of healing wounds and cuts on both their faces.

Jim started to tell her that they should find seats, but before he could Lee asked, "What happened? You both look like you've been roughed up."

"Mugging." Harvey lied about his injuries at the exact same time Bird honestly answered, "Work."

The look on her face grew to one of confusion as she watched them exchange looks with each other.

"I'm sorry, did you say work?" Lee began to question, but Jim gave his girlfriend a smile as he said, "If you want that popcorn, we should probably get in line, show's about to start."

Smiling brightly, Lee looked around at the growing lines at the food vendor trucks and tents and nodded in agreement.

"Harvey." Jim nodded in parting, as he laid a hand on Lee's back and started to direct her away from them.  
He'd only made a few steps before he turned around and commented, "Bird, glad to see your hand's all healed up. It looked pretty bad that day I saw you at the hospital."

Her jaw dropped in disbelief at him, and she could feel Harvey tense up beside her when she saw Jim shoot him a look, before continuing on his way to get in line for food.

Turning to face him, she saw Harvey's gaze fall to the ground, clearly ashamed for how he'd treated and hurt her that day. Even more so now that Jim somehow knew he'd been responsible for leaving a mark on her.

"He, uh…" Harvey breathed, shaking his head he couldn't find the right questions to ask.

"I didn't tell him." She promised, "He saw my hand and sort of put two and two together, but he knows you weren't really yourself and-"

"It never should have happened." Harvey cut her off, accepting the full blame, "I didn't realize I'd hurt you that bad, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Bird excused, somehow always finding herself brushing off the bad things he'd done, when she was eaten up with guilt over the ways she'd hurt him.

"Lee seems nice." Bird finally said, breaking the silence and trying to change the subject, as she stared off in the direction the couple had went, before muttering, "She asks a lot of questions though…"

Thinking to when she'd asked why they were both a little bruised and cut up, Bird glanced at Harvey and asked, "A mugging, really?"  
Harvey countered, "Work? How would you have explained that one away?"

"The only real answer needed there is that I work for Don Falcone." Bird pointed out, and he got the feeling she was testing him, but he still couldn't stop himself from nearly lecturing.

"You can't just tell people that-"

"Why?" She asked, "Because it makes me look bad or because it would reflect badly back on you? An honest lawyer shacked up with a criminal?"

Not wanting to start a fight, Harvey shook his head, "It doesn't even matter, let's just enjoy tonight. I know you said you don't like the food here, but you want something to drink? Or I think I saw pre-packaged cotton candy."

"Sure." She agreed she looked up to him, finding herself lost in his eyes and the adoring look he always wore in them that was only for her –even when she was purposely being difficult.

Taking hold of her hand again he led her towards the concession walkway.

Once they'd taken their seats, Bird looked around at the other seats filling up quickly around them and hoped that the few empty seats next to her in the row would remain empty.

In fact, she was debating taking her coat off and lying on the seat to say it was taken, but before she could decide whether freezing in the cold would be worth not having to sit next to an stranger who undoubtedly would move around in their seats and be throwing elbows about like spare change, someone walked up to them and she looked up to see Lee's smiling face.

"Are these seats taken?" She inquired, "Everywhere else seems full up to the backrow."

Bird and Jim exchanged looks, neither of them very happy with the idea of the night turning into some awkward double date.  
Bird started to lie, "Oh, um, actually…" And Jim nodded before she could finish as he said, "I think I see some seats a few rows down-"

With a friendly smile, Harvey politely said, "They're not taken. The seats are all yours."

Lee smiled and Jim strained through a smile of his own when she turned back to look at him before sitting down and leaving the seat beside an unhappy Bird open for him.

"What are you doing?" Lee laughed, when Jim stayed standing instead of sitting down.

Finally, he sat down between Bird and Lee and stared straight ahead when he could feel Bird watching him. But it wasn't long until he was distracted as his girlfriend started excitedly talking his ear off about a review she'd read about The Flying Graysons act in the paper.

Bird tore into her bag of purple cotton candy and wondered how on earth she'd tell Barbara that Jim had moved on. Her friend still seemed so sure she was going to get him back.

Aside from that she was trying to convince herself that in a few hours the show would be over and then maybe she'd be lucky enough to go another month before having to talk to Jim again, maybe if another month went by without having to see him –then maybe she could forget how it had felt when he kissed her. Maybe she could end up forgetting the entire thing.

As she readjusted in her seat, her arm brushed up against his on their shared armrest. They looked at each other, before both quickly moving their arms and looking away from each other.

"Harvey." Bird whispered, leaning over towards him, "Trade me seats."

"What? Why?" He whispered back, glancing around her to see Lee and Jim were also huddled close together whispering about something.

"I don't like this seat." Bird vaguely answered, "Please, trade me."

Glancing over to see Lee was watching them with a slightly confused expression on her face, before she whispered something back to Jim and shook her head back and forth, Harvey asked, "What's going on?"

"Jim keeps elbowing me in the side." Bird lied with a shrug, "And I'm trying to not be rude about it… since you consider him a friend, so just trade me seats."

"But don't you think it's going to look rude if we switch…" His voice trailed off when he saw the look on her face, and finally agreed to switch seats with her.

Only, they stood up at the same time Jim and Lee stood up –after he'd finally convinced her to trade seats with him.

The couples looked at each other and back down to their set of four seats and realizing they'd all gotten up to shuffle their seating arrangement around.

Wearing another friendly smile, Lee let out a small laugh, before she sat down in the seat Jim had been in and Bird sat down beside her in her own seat.

Once Jim and Harvey were also sitting down, Bird grew angry that Jim had such a problem sitting next to her.  
True, she had been convincing Harvey to trade with her, but she'd fully convinced herself that the kiss was entirely Jim's fault.  
So in her mind, she had every right to not want to sit next to him.

"So…" Bird breathed, turning to the woman beside her, "How long have you been dating?"

"A little while now." Lee answered, taking a sip of her soda, she offered up more information, "We met while Jim was working security at Arkham."

"Oh, that's so nice." Bird replied, "So you work the asylum then?"

"I did." She admitted, beaming another smile as she proudly said, "But, now you happen to be looking at the new medical examiner."

"Congratulations!" Bird said, an unstable laugh spilling out before she turned back around and stared straight ahead.

By all accounts Lee seemed to be a nice person, and clearly falling for Jim, who seemed just as smitten with her. Bird wished she could be genuinely happy for them, but she'd spent so many nights sitting up with Barbara who was still a mess over their relationship ending, and in truth Bird was still a little broken hearted and found herself jealous over how happy the new couple seemed.

Looking back over to Harvey she felt a pang in her chest, wishing they could have had something close to normal –even from the beginning she'd been lying to him about things and their first date had led to a heated debate and her having to run off when Falcone called upon her.

His eyes met hers and he gave her a smile, seeming happy to have her back and be spending the evening with her. Leaning in he pressed a soft kiss to her lips, and she leaned into it –thinking about how much she'd missed the feeling of his mouth on hers.

Just as she pulled back, he wrapped his arm around her and for a moment she hesitated, but finally relaxed against his side –feeling more content than she'd care to admit. She wasn't sure why and she knew it was probably unhealthy to do so, but she wanted to hold onto the anger she'd felt towards him.

Looking over at them, Lee thought back to when she'd asked about their healing injuries and Bird claimed she sustained them at work.

"Bird?" She asked, "What is that you do for work?"

Jim's eyes widened as he leaned forward to look around Lee when he heard the question. He wasn't sure if she was going to play it smooth or flat out admit she was a part of the Falcone Crime Family.  
He never knew what to expect out of Bird.

His eyes fell to where Harvey's arm was around Bird, and his jaw tensed in anger before he sat back in his seat and popped a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

"I worked in a nightclub." She half-lied, even though that had been well over a while ago, it still seemed like the easiest explanation.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, "I bet that's exciting!"

"It was, but I'd been planning a career change, so for now I'm just sort of playing the field." She answered with a shrug.

"Popcorn?" Jim asked, pushing the bag towards his girlfriend, and trying to stop her from making conversation with Bird. "Not right now and if you keep eating that it will be gone before the show starts." She laughed before she looked back to the couple as she asked, "How long have you been together?"

"Oh, well, we're-" Bird started admit that they weren't technically together, more so trying to see how things played out, but Harvey answered at the same time, "About eight months."

"Aww." Lee smiled, and Bird somehow found it in her to smile back even though it was now more than clear that Harvey thought they'd just jumped right back into where they'd left off and was also apparently counting the month they hadn't spoken.

Before anymore conversation could take place, to both Jim and Bird's relief the lights lowered and music started to play through the speakers.

It didn't take long for the show to get into the action with trapeze artists swinging and being tossed around high up in the air and Bird, who thought her list of cons far outweighed the pros of going, actually found herself enjoying the stunts and having more fun than she expected.

Still leaning against Harvey's side, she glanced at him when she felt his arm tighten around her as he looked at her with a smile before turning back to the show.

Slowly she laid her head against his shoulder, her head titled gently into the crook of his neck and despite having the month apart –it still felt natural to be cuddled up to him.

She glanced over to see Lee and Jim were also cuddled up together, both of them wearing smiles and for a moment she started to wonder if she could ever be happy like that with Harvey again –not having the constant worry that if she stepped one foot out of line that he'd be hurt to straighten her out.

Giving it some more thought, she wondered if they could ever really be happy again, now that he knew about her life of crime. Even more so, she found her head filled with so many other questions. He was a good man who he knew what he wanted out of life and what he didn't.

He expected her to change so much in her life for him and at first she'd loved that he could and was willing to see the past the bad decisions she'd made and where her life had ended up.  
But now it just seemed to be a reminder that who was right now didn't seem good enough. That while she'd accepted him, even at worst –apparently she wasn't deserving of the same kindness.

The thoughts pulled the air from her lungs and a sick feeling rose in her stomach. Pulling away from Harvey she leaned forward in her seat some hoping to catch her breath, but it wasn't helping.

"Are you okay?" Harvey asked, leaning forward in his seat to get a better look at her.

"I'm fine." She managed a smile to sell the lie, "I'm just going to run to the restroom. Be right back."

Before he could say anything else, she'd scrambled up out of her seat and mumbled an apology to Jim when she stepped on his foot in her dash to get away from the crowd and find somewhere less suffocating to catch her breath.

She ended up finding her way back to the concession stand and gift shop area. Luckily, most everyone had cleared out and was in their seats enjoying the show.

Bird sat down at one of the picnic tables in a small seating area between two food trucks, and ran her fingers through her hair.

Finally able to pull in a deep breath, she closed her eyes and was in the middle of thinking up an excuse to tell Harvey of why she needed to go home when she heard footsteps in the gravel near her, followed by her name being called.

"Bird?"

Looking up she saw Jim approaching the table she was sitting at, her eyes went a little wide as they darted from side to side to see if he was alone or if he had Lee or Harvey in toe. When she realized he was by himself, she got up from the table and started walking in the other direction.

Jim slowed to a stop, shaking his head as he did. Over the past month he'd seen her several times around the city –and every time she'd turned and walked the other direction pretending she hadn't seen him.

It was abundantly clear that she was avoiding him, and while he didn't really want to talk about what had happened that day at the hospital either, he also knew they couldn't continue on like this either. They were bound to keep crossing paths and at this rate leaving things the way they were would make things even more painfully awkward.

"Bird!" He called out, jogging after her.

"What, Jim?" She asked, turning around and finally facing him.

He opened his mouth, but having no idea how to even start the conversation, no words came out. A fact which apparently annoyed Bird as she crossed her arms over her chest and pushed, "You chased me down, so what do you want?"

"You didn't leave me much of an option." He pointed out, growing equally as irritated with her and the blatant rudeness he'd been greeted with, "You've been avoiding me for a month."

With a scoff, she lied, "I have not, I've just been…"

"Avoiding me."

"Busy!" She argued.

When he gave her a look that showed he didn't a buy a single word or excuse she was trying to sell him, Bird sighed and her tone shifted to where she didn't sound near as annoyed with him, "I have been busy, okay? My brother and Alfred were at our family's chalet in Switzerland, so aside from working, I've been keeping an eye on Wayne Manor."

"Okay." He accepted, pausing to pull a breath in before stating, "I believe you, but that doesn't change the fact that you've been avoiding me."

She opened her mouth and he could tell by just the look on her face that she was going to debate with him all over again; which wouldn't get them anywhere.

"It happened." He quickly said, cutting her off before she could think up another argument, "It shouldn't have, but it did and we can't take it back. Avoiding me isn't going to change anything, you do understand that?"

Stepping closer to him and keeping her arms defensively crossed over her chest, Bird quietly asked, "You really want to talk about this?"

"Not really." Jim admitted, with a low laugh. He was certainly never the one who'd instigated these sort of discussions. "But we're bound to keep crossing paths in Gotham and it can't be like this every single time."

Finally, she nodded in agreement. Even with her working under Falcone and Jim being a detective for the GCPD, their paths always seemed to be crossing.

"Fine." She sighed, as she dropped her arms to her sides and admitted, "Then I've got to be honest, I'm not really sure what to do in this situation. Harvey is pretty much my first real relationship and-"

"You're back together?" Jim asked, cutting her ramblings off.

"I…" She breathed, running her hands through her hair, "I don't know what we are anymore."

Looking from side to side, Jim spoke in a voice barely over a whisper when he pointed out, "I remember what you said about things getting really bad between the two of you, and then with the way he hurt your hand that day-"

"Yeah, thanks for bringing that up in front of him, by the way."

"He grabbed you hard enough that it bruised." Jim reminded her, wondering if there were other altercations between then he didn't know about.

"He was not himself." She hissed, "And either way, I am more than capable of taking care of myself."

"That's not the point-"

"Are you going to tell Lee that you kissed me?" Bird interrupted, "Judging from how she's all smiles and trying to make friends with me, I'm going to guess you didn't say anything to her."

When he blankly stared back at her, she repeated, "Are you planning on telling her?"

"Honestly…" He sighed, "Probably not."

"Good." Bird agreed, "It was just the one time, just one kiss."

"Right." He nodded, "It shouldn't have happened."

"And not like it's going to happen again." She furthered the list of excuses they were using to make themselves feel better about the situation.

"It was a mistake." Jim added.

"I'm glad you're not going to tell her, because I don't plan on telling Harvey either." Bird's mind drifted back to when he'd lost control of his rage the night he'd seen Oswald kiss her, and the night had ended with him hitting her. "I mean things did not end well the last time."

"The last time?" He repeated back.

"Yeah, with Oswald." Bird explained without giving any thought to it, until Jim stared back at her with a shocked expression and she realized what she'd said.

"That was a mistake too." She quickly added.

"Wait…" He breathed, "When did you-"

"None of your business." She cut him off with one of her signature smiles that showed he wasn't going to get any more information out of her.

"Point is: Oswald and I had one very awkward conversation after it happened, and now things are fine between us. We just pretend it never happened." Bird said, motioning between them as she asked, "So we can do that too, right? If you're not telling Lee and I'm not about to tell Harvey about it, then we just can just put it behind us and pretend it never happened."

When she got a nod of agreement from Jim, she started to walk past him, but he grabbed onto her arm and stopped her. "Look, I know you can take care of yourself, but that doesn't mean you should be in a relationship with someone that's hurting you."

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Bird whisper yelled at him, their eyes locking as she looked over at him.

"Maybe." Jim shrugged, "Maybe it was the medicine they had him on after he was attacked, or the head trauma… I don't know. I also don't know if he's hurt you before and you're just not telling me, but what I do know is that in these situations –if someone hurts you like that once, they'll do it again and again."

Pulling her arm away from the gentle, but firm grip he had on her, anger flashed in her brown eyes when she argued, "Yeah? Well, either way it's my life and it doesn't concern you." Looking him over she added, "And I get so sick of you pretending that you're so much better than everyone else. You're not, you know that? We've all got our dark sides and our demons, even you Jim Gordon."

As she turned to walk away she called over her shoulder, "Barbara told me so."

"Barbara?" He yelled back, but Bird didn't stop to offer up an explanation as she kept walking back towards the circus arena.

His expression twisted, he didn't even know that his ex-girlfriend was back in town, nor did he have any idea why Bird would know that.

Shaking his head, he followed in her direction to get back to his own seat, wondering how Bird always seemed to know things that he didn't.  
It was one of the many things about her that so easily found its way under his skin.

"Hey." Harvey greeted, when Bird returned and slid back into her seat next to him. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." She nodded, "I'm just not feeling well. I think I'm probably just going to head home."

"The shows about over." Harvey pointed out, a concerned expression on his face as he moved his head to try and get her to look him in the eyes, but she seemed to be making a point of not doing so.

Scooting the edge of the seat he said, "But if you don't feel like staying-"

Knowing he was going to offer to either walk her to her car or give her a ride home, Bird plastered on a smile and shook her head, "No, you're right. I should stay until it's over."

He eyed her for a few seconds before accepting the answer and sitting back in his chair as he took her hand in his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Bird looked down to their connected hands with a physical pain in her chest from how much she'd missed him, and from how much she wished the person she was could just be enough for him.

Pulling in a deep breath, she adjusted in her own seat to watch the rest of the show, and gave him a smile when he let go of her hand to put his arm around her and pull her back against his side.

Remembering that he'd told her about trying to grab moments of happiness when they could, Bird slowly moved her arm across his stomach and held onto him. Deciding to just enjoy the time with him and the circus show –everything else could wait. For now she could just pretend things were good between them again, forget about the aching pain in her chest and just try to enjoy the night.

Lee looked over at the couple next to her and smiled at them, she was just about to ask Bird if she'd happened to run into Jim, but before she got the chance he returned to his own seat.

"Sorry." He breathed, apologizing for his extended absence from their date.

His jaw tensed when his eyes drifted past her to where Bird and Harvey were cuddled up watching the show.

"It's okay." Lee smiled, looking down to his empty hands before asking, "Where's the popcorn?"

When he didn't answer, she lightly nudged his side, "Jim? Where's the popcorn?"

"What?" He questioned, finally pulling his eyes away from Bird.

"The popcorn." Lee stated, with raised eyebrows, "The popcorn you said you were going to get since we ran out…"

"Oh!" He breathed, shaking his head and realizing he'd completely forgotten, he offered a smile and lied, "They were out. But we could stop somewhere to eat after the show?"

Lee smiled back at him, nodding and accepting the answer, before she looked back out to where the show was starting to wind down.

As the trapeze show came to an end, the ring leader's voice came through the speakers, "Ladies and gentleman; The Flying Grayson's! Show your appreciation!"

The entire crowd burst into cheers and booms of applause, until a small car drove into the center of the ring honking the horn as it went.

The door opened and clowns started to pile out, along with several more people in clown make-up beginning to take up the space on unicycles while juggling bowling pins.

The ring leader walked out and started to try and round up the clowns, and the trapeze artists looked confused and angry with the interruption.

"This is chaos." Harvey said with his mouth near her ear so she could hear him over the noise.

Biting down on her lip from the familiar feeling of his warm breath caressing her skin, she replied, "I'm not so sure this is part of the show."

Soon, everyone started to realize it too when a full-fledged fight broke out and everyone stared in shock and horror as more punches were thrown and several of The Flying Graysons had glass bottles broke against their heads.

Standing up, Jim pulled in a breath before he descended the steps and walked into the ring, displaying his badge and yelling, "G.C.P.D! Everybody freeze!"

 **~()~**

"Where's Lila?" Jim asked as Jerome stepped out of the trailer he shared with his mother. Not long ago, it was determined that the fight that had broken out and disrupted the trapeze show was a result of two families who had been feuding for years.  
The reason for their current war was because of a snake dancer in the side show named Lila Valeska.

"I don't know…" He stammered, teeth chattering from the bitter cold night air, "She was supposed to be home ages ago."

"You a relative?" Jim questioned.

"I'm-" Jerome started to answer, until he looked and saw Bird walking in their direction. His eyes cut over to where his mother's lifeless body was laying under a tarp and then back to the young brunette who'd nearly uncovered her before the show.

"Hmm?" Jim asked, still waiting on the response.

"I…" He breathed, shaking his head and glancing back to Bird with a stunned expression, "What was the question?"  
His head lowered at his inability to keep up, but having Bird there made him nervous when she'd almost uncovered the secret just over an hour ago.  
He'd had a feeling since she walked away that she'd somehow saw through his act.

"You two know each other?" Jim asked, glancing from Jerome to Bird.

"Nope." She breathed, shaking her head back and forth.

Harvey glanced down to where she was standing at his side and then back to Jim who was talking.  
With everyone trying to leave all at once with the fight breaking out, the parking lot was so full that it would have been pointless trying to leave, so both he and Bird had stuck around to find out what all the fighting was about.

"Are you related to Lila?" Jim repeated his earlier question.

"I'm her son." He answered, hugging his open jacket against himself.

"What's your name?"

"Jerome."

"Jerome." Jim accepted with a nod and questioned, "When did you last see her?"

"Uh, this morning. She was here when I left for the library." He explained, but before he could say much else the ringleader walked up and said, "Relax, Jerome. This gentleman is here because Owen and Al had a disagreement. Your mother is fine, gone on a spree no doubt… you know how she is.

"A spree?" He scoffed, "Without her hat or coat or purse?"  
Stepping to the side where his mother's snake was in the exterior cage attached to their trailer he said, "And look at Sheba, she's distraught. She knows something's wrong."

Harvey raised an eyebrow at the redhead's words, he'd never heard of a snake showing any emotion –let alone looking distraught, but his gaze fell to Bird when she shrugged and agreed, "She looks upset to me."

Letting out a sigh, Jim put on a tight smile as he said, "The snake does seem to be agitated."

"Sir." The ringleader laughed as he stepped closer to Jim and quietly said, "She's what you call a party girl… coming back in the morning with her knickers in a handbag, sure as eggs."

Getting the feeling that the ringleader wasn't being entirely truthful about something Jim argued, "But she didn't take her handbag, did she?"

"How fast does an animal like that move?" Jim questioned.

"Fast walking pace." Jerome shrugged, "They rely on surprise mostly."

Knowing that snakes possess a great sense of smell, Jim instructed, "Let it out."

"I'm sorry…" Jerome breathed with raised eyebrows.

"The snake." Jim nodded, "Let it out."

"She." Bird corrected Jim, if for no other reason than to irritate him, "It is a girl, and her name is Sheba."

His jaw was tensed and inside he thought Bird wasn't happy until his blood pressure was reaching catastrophic levels, he managed to say through clenched teeth, "Right. Jerome, let _her_ out, please.

Turning to Bird, Harvey suggested, "The parking lot should be cleared enough that we can get to our cars."

With a playful look in her eyes she asked, "What's wrong Harvey, scared of a little snake?"

"No." He argued before, nodding to where Jerome was lifting Sheba from her cage as he added, "And that's not a little snake."

Bird laughed and everyone watched as Jerome sat Sheba down on the straw covered ground and it was only a few moments before she started slithering past them.

"I have to say…" Lee breathed, "I did not see the night going like this."

Jim looked at her before he followed the snake towards the tarp that Bird had been inspecting earlier. Their group moved closer, and Bird looked to Jerome who glanced at her before quickly diverting his gaze back to the ground as they walked.

Sheba slithered up the square bails of straw and went under the tarp. Jim waited for a while before he pulled the tarp back and revealed the bloodied corpse of a woman, that the snake was now slithering over.

Several shocked gasps rang out from nearby and Lee's forehead lined as she breathed, "Oh my god!"

Bird shook her head back and forth, she knew it.  
She'd just known there was a body underneath that tarp and she had no doubt in her mind that it had to have been why Jerome was so eager to chase her away from the flatbed truck. She looked over just in time to see him start crying as he fell to knees and Lee rushed over with a comforting hand on his shoulder.

After the initial shock and excitement had worn off; Jim made a call into the GCPD for back up and forensics, and Bird walked with Harvey towards the nearly cleared out parking lot.

"So… the idea to come to the circus for a date was probably the worst idea I've ever had." Harvey exclaimed, his hand finding hers as he walked with Bird.

Looking down to their laced fingers, she said, "We've had some dates that ended badly, but a dead body is a new one."  
Leaning against her car she looked to him in the streetlights and he faced her as he nodded, "Maybe next time you should pick the place."

Leaning down he started to kiss her, but she turned her head to the side ever so slightly to block the attempt and softly said, "Harvey…"

"What's wrong?" He asked, reaching out and gently tilted her head up to face him when she didn't answer.

"I have to tell you something." She sighed, rubbing her face as she spoke and muffled her voice against her hands. When she finally looked back to him, her eyes were shiny in the lighting and she said, "I came here tonight because I wanted to see you… I miss you so much that it hurts, but… you're acting like we're back to where we were. Like we just snapped back into place and I can't do that."

His eyes roamed over her face and he understood that he'd been moving too fast. He just wanted her back, wanted things back to how they used to be so bad that he'd taken her agreeing to come out with him as a renewed relationship.

"I'm sorry." He said, unable to hide the sadness and heartache in his eye. "I guess I just thought…" Pulling in a breath he sighed, "It's just so easy being with you, it just feels natural. I'm not pretending the last month didn't happen, but for all of tonight it felt like it didn't exist."

"I miss you." He added, his fingers running down her arm to her hand before they found their place intertwined with hers.

"I miss you too." She breathed out, her eyes meeting his in the lighting and she continued, "I felt like that too… I always feel like that with you, the moments when we're together I feel so invincible and like we can make things work. But then something happens and it feels like we just keep fixing things so they break again."

"But that's life." He argued, "Every time you turn around it's something else, but you keep fighting and make it through and every once in a while you get lucky enough to find someone you want to share it all with –the highs and lows."

"Yeah, but come on. My life isn't just highs and lows –I screwed up and because of it, you landed up in the hospital. That's not normal, nothing about me is normal." She argued, but he seemed to have a counter to everything she said.

" _Our_ lives aren't normal, Starling. I mean… hell, we just had a date that started perfectly normal and ended with following a snake to a dead body. I don't know many other people who can say that." He paused for a moment before correcting, "Except for Jim and Lee."

A smile toyed at the corner of her mouth, but her eyes still showed dark traces of heartache as she commented, "You just won't make this easy on me, will you? Can't just let things be?"

"I can't just let things be." He admitted, "You mean too much to me."

"I saw your computer and all of those real estate websites you went to. Looking at places as far away as London… after I told you I wasn't leaving Gotham-"

"I was looking at places." He nodded, "In and out of Gotham City."

"Wait, what?" she asked, her confusion growing.

"I was going to talk to you about it." He explained with a sheepish smile, "My lease is up at the end of the year and I was looking at places for us, both in and out of Gotham… I wanted to have plenty of options for you."

"Us? Like… for us to move in together?"

"Yes, a place for us both to move too –a home." He softly said, as he caressed the side of her face with his hand and continued, "Once I had everything together I was going to talk to you, but then everything happened."

When she didn't say anything, he gently took the other side of her face in his hand and got her to look at him as he said, "So, yes. I was ready and willing to just get back to where we were and keep moving forward, and I was really hoping that you were too."

"It's just not that easy for me, a lot has changed this past month. For the first time in a long time I feel like I've finally got some control back."

"I don't want to take that away from you." He assured her.

"But you do." She admitted in an emotion strained voice, "For a month I've been operating as a machine and then you walk back into my life and you make me question everything all over again. It tears me apart; trying to be the thing I need to be when all I want to do is just be me –just be me with you."

"You don't think I can handle that?" Harvey questioned, "I've already accepted it, I accepted you –accepted when you came to me and told me you were going to have to do terrible things. It haunts me and sometimes, I lose sleep over knowing all of that –but I handle it, because being with you is worth it."

"But that's just it… you don't really accept it, do you? You don't accept me for who I am right now, you want this other version of me and I-"

"That's not true." He argued.

"What I think is that you're willing to handle it until things get really bad!" She blurted out before she could stop herself.

"You have every right to be mad at me for everything I said when I was in the hospital."  
He'd been fairly sure that even though she claimed to not be holding it against him, that the things he'd said were still like thorns in her skin that kept digging in deeper.

"I'm not mad!" She unintentionally yelled, "I just need some time to figure out… well, to figure out everything."

"We can't get past this if you won't be honest." He quietly said, looking down as he ran this thumb over the back of her hand and said, "You already know what I want, I want you. When you figure out what you want –I'm here."

With that his hand slid from her grip and she watched as he turned and headed to where he was parked, leaving her standing next to her car to sort through what she was feeling and figure out what she wanted.

Walking around to the driver's side of her car, she unlocked her door and got in. With a heavy sigh she rested her forehead against the steering wheel, as patrol cars started to arrive from the call Jim had placed earlier and she tried to sort through how she was feeling when it came to Harvey.

Finally she shook her head, trying to not think about him anymore for the night. She just wanted to get home, away from the night and away from the pain she still felt.

Putting the key in the ignition she tried to start her car, but nothing happened.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She yelled, her voice bouncing back from all the closed windows and nearly making her cringe. After several more failed attempts to get the car to start, she let out a frustrated scream and got out of her car roughly slamming the door shut behind her.

 **~()~**

With a wrinkled nose, Lee kicked the door to the blue housing of portable toilet shut behind her as she walked out and poured hand sanitizer into her palm before slipping the bottle back into her pocket. She'd tried to hold it until they reached the station, but all the soda she'd been sipping on waiting on Jim to finish up at the crime scene had finally gotten to her.

As she walked across the parking lot, she slowed to a stop when she saw Bird sitting on the hood of her car with her head resting in her hands.

"Are you okay?" She asked, walking closer to the young woman.

"Car won't start." Bird admitted looking up to her, "I've called four different towing companies and the two that are open twenty-four hours can't get here till the morning. I even threw my name around with some taxi companies –turns out even a Wayne can't get a taxi on a Friday night in Gotham."

She was about to just start walking home, even though it was a far distance from where they were. She hadn't spoken to her brother or Alfred in nearly a month and didn't feel right calling them so late at night because she'd gotten stranded. She'd even been avoiding her brother's calls since he'd gotten back in town.

"If I'd drove here I'd take you home, but I came with Jim and in a little bit we'll be heading to the station." She admitted with a sympathetic look before she suggested, "Maybe we can get a patrol officer to drive you home?"

"Wouldn't be the first time I've been driven home in the back of a police car." She breathed as she slid off of her car and in response Lee laughed like she'd been telling a joke instead of a factual comment.

"Come with me." She said, nodding for Bird to follow her.

After they found Jim, Lee asked if he could get an officer to take Bird home, but he said there wasn't any available units at that point. Every car that was there was being used to transport the circus workers to the station for interviews –everyone was a suspect.

"Then she can ride back with us." Lee suggested, "Wait at the station until we can figure something out."

"Lee…" He sighed, looking at her with the expression he always got when he was about to shoot down one of her ideas.

"We can't just leave her here." She argued, and Bird was beginning to wish she'd never even came to the circus to begin with. Apart from the moments where she'd melted back into things with Harvey –the night had been nothing short of a disaster that left her more confused than ever.

"Fine." Jim sighed in defeat, yet again finding himself unable to tell Lee no about something.

"Thank you." Bird softly said, looking between them. She wasn't any happier about the idea than he was, but at the moment she didn't have a better option.

Leading her over to the car, Jim asked, "Where's Harvey?"

"He left." Bird admitted, her eyes dropping to the gravel they were standing on as she added, "Of course, I didn't try to start my car until after he was already gone."

"Did you have a fight?" Jim questioned. Judging from how she was acting, he'd guess things hadn't ended on a good note between them.

"Why are you being so nosy, Jim?" Her eyebrows raised as she spoke.

"Is this how it's going to be now?" He questioned, "Three steps forward and two steps back?"  
It seemed to be a running theme for them, making progress and then being back at each other's throats.

"I'll just call Harvey, maybe he's not gotten too far-"

"No." Jim quickly said, opening up the car door and nodding as he added,"Just wait in the car, we'll be leaving in a few minutes."

Silently nodding she got into the car when he opened the back door for her, after she was inside he shut the door behind her and she blew out a heavy sigh before she realized someone was sitting in the seat next to her.

Slowly turning her head she saw Jerome sitting next to her watching her with his red rimmed eyes, before he slowly turned his head back and stared in front of him.  
Thankful for the heat inside of the car, she took her jacket off and balled it up against the window as a makeshift pillow and rested her head on it.

* * *

 **A/N – Thank you all for reading. I'd planned on getting the chapter up sooner, but things just didn't pan out like I'd hoped.**

 **You can always find me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent).**

 **I owe a special thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Loopylucymac, Miss E Charlotte, Melody Jane, and Snuffles awesome for reviewing the last chapter. :)**


	41. You Know How Mothers Are

**XLI**

" _There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand."_ _― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein_

* * *

"Jim! Jim!" Bird called as she darted up from where she'd been sitting upon spotting the detective, "When can someone drive me home? I've been here for twenty minutes."

Letting out a tired and heavy sigh he turned to face her, "I don't know. Look around, we're kind of all hands on deck right now."

Bird looked around, the scene was actually rather comical –seeing the police station filled with so many circus workers in their bright clothing and make up. In fact, if she wasn't feeling so low she imagined she'd have gotten a kick out of it.

"What am I supposed to do?" She questioned, with a slight whine in her voice.

"Call someone or wait until things calm down." He instructed, "Until then just sit down and be patient."

"Patience isn't exactly one of my virtues, Jim." Bird sighed, staring up to the ceiling in a feeling of nothing less than complete and utter irritation at how her night had turned out.

"You don't say." He sarcastically replied, equally as frustrated.

"Maybe I'll just call Harvey." She shrugged.

"Dent?" Jim questioned.

"No, Harvey Bullock." Bird arched a brow as she spoke, "I'm sure he's got nothing better to do on a Friday night than be me chauffer around Gotham City." She dramatically paused before loudly exclaimed, "Yes, I'm talking about Harvey Dent!"

"No, you don't need to call Dent." Jim quickly said, his eyebrows lowering in an almost angered look as he spoke.  
Catching Bird entirely off guard, who let out a low, nearly unhinged laugh as she asked, "Did you really just tell me no?"

"Just wait a little while longer and I'll either find someone to take you home, or I'll drive you myself, okay? Just try to be patient until then." He pleaded.

Judging from the mixed expression of anger and disbelief on the brunette's face, he guessed she wasn't used to be being told no, or having to wait on someone when she needed something.  
She was a Wayne after all, probably grew up used to having everyone jump at her commands –he grew more sure of his assumptions when Bird, sighed, "Patient for how long?"

"I don't know." Rubbing a hand over his face he looked past her to see Jerome sitting on a bench just outside of the room he was going to be questioning him in soon and added, "If you want to make yourself useful, bring him a cup of water or something –it's still going to be a few more minutes before I can talk to him."

Looking over her shoulder to where the redhead was sitting she asked, "Does it look like I work here?"

"He's eighteen and just saw his mother's dead body… can't you be just a little sympathetic to this?" Jim sighed, before he caught sight of Lee from across the station and quickly walked off to speak with her.

With a burdened sigh, she did as he'd suggested and got a cup of water and sat down beside Jerome, holding the cup out she said, "Water?"

Slowly he took the glass from her, avoiding her eyes as he politely replied, "Thank you."

"Sorry about your mom." Bird said, empathizing with the loss, "I just lost my parents earlier this year too."

When he finally looked over at her and his green eyes locked with hers, it didn't take long before Bird was easily able to see past the tears and the act he was putting on.  
Despite his looking normal enough on the outside, she could see the darkness lurking there beneath the surface.

Not giving him a chance to say anything she quietly added just over a whisper, "Of course, I didn't have anything to do with my parent's murders…"

"W-what?" He stuttered out, "I didn't… why… why would you say that? Why would you even think…" His voice trailed off, and the startled look on his face changed to one of intrigue; his tone took on a deep snakes hiss when he said, "Yeah, okay… but, the bitch deserved it."

Bird glanced around, making sure no one was paying attention to them before she asked with an amused expression, "You're admitting that you're a killer?" A wide smile was on her lips as she spoke. "And right here, in the middle of the police station nonetheless."

Leaning in slightly, his green eyes looked wild and alive as he continued to speak in the new voice he'd taken on, "Takes one to know one."

"That it does." Bird agreed.

It was something she'd seen time and again to be true. It was as if sick minds could pick each other from the crowd.

Maybe it was the darkness in them, though it seemed everyone carried a different variation of it –perhaps it was still deep down the same. Or maybe knowing the depths that humans could sink too, allowed them to see something deeper than what was displayed on the surface.

"I knew you were trying to keep me away from that tarp for a reason." She laughed, shaking her head back and forth.

"Guilty." Jerome replied

Bird's head cocked to the side and she continued to stare at him while he grinned ear-to-ear with one of the most disturbing smiles she'd ever been faced with.

"I have to admit, now I'm curious…" He whispered, still grinning, "What would have happened if I hadn't stopped you in time."

"To start with, I'd probably have told you that was a terrible place to try and hide a body-"

"All part of the plan, sunshine." He winked as he cut her off.

"Well…" Bird breathed, "You better hope it's a damn good plan, because Jim Gordon is annoyingly good at his job. A dog with a bone, so to speak –and he's headed this way now."

"Sorry about it taking so long." Jim apologized, looking down to the papers in his hand as he walked up to them, "Jerome?"

With every last trace of the smile gone and tears welling back up in his eyes, he turned around to look at the detective as he said, "Yes?"

"We're ready for you." Jim nodded for Jerome to head into the room they were going to talk in.

When Jim started to walk away, he paused when he saw the amused look on Bird's face and asked, "What?"

"Nothing." She laughed, shaking her head. Glancing back towards the room he'd just sent Jerome into, Jim asked, "What were you talking about?"

"Nothing." She stubbornly answered again.

Blowing out a heavy breath he turned and started towards the room, with the feeling that yet again, Bird knew far more than he did.

"Good luck!" She called after him.

Coming to a stop, he looked back and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shrugging with a feigned expression of innocence, she smiled before taking her cellphone out of her pocket and refusing to look back at him.

 **~()~**

After thanking Harvey for coming to give her a ride home, Bird started to follow him out of the station and into the rain that had started to fall several minutes prior.  
Not long after Jim had taken Jerome to question him, a storm had started to brew outside and Bird had finally grown tired of sitting there alone and ended up calling Harvey and asking him to come to get her.

She found the redhead amusing and was rather impressed with his acting of genuine shock and loss at his mother's death –but he was doomed, she thought. Jim Gordon wasn't one to let things go and inevitably he'd end up getting to the bottom of what had happened.

Moving quickly through the rain with his head down, Harvey started to open the driver's door to get in the car, but stopped when he looked up and saw Bird was still standing in the middle of the sidewalk out in front of the station.

"What are you doing?" He yelled, squinting from the ice cold water droplets pouring down from the sky.

"I am mad at you!" She admitted, tossing her arms up and letting them fall to her side in frustration. "I have been so angry with you this entire time."

"You want to do this here? Right now?" He called out, thinking that he'd been ready for her to be honest with him, but he didn't expect it to take place in the middle of a rainstorm on a freezing cold night.

"You made me feel like it was okay to open to you, to be honest about things that I was terrified for you to find out… and then you just threw it all back in my face."

Shutting the car door, he walked back up to her as Bird continued to complain, "It was no secret you didn't like it, but you told me the fact that I wanted to change my life meant more to you than the bad I'd done."

"I'm sorry." He said, his voice raised over the sound of the rain falling all around them and leaving them feel chilled to the bone.

"I just…" She breathed, taking in a deep breath, "Once I knew you were going to be okay, I thought everything was going to be okay… that you were alive and anything else we could work through together. That's what we've always done and then the ' _we'_ turned into a ' _me'_ and I didn't blame you for not wanting anything to do with me after what happened to you… but I was still mad at you –and even more mad at myself for being mad at you when I was the reason you were laying in that hospital bed."

His eyes never left her face as she finally told him the truth, swallowing hard he nodded in agreement knowing that feeling all too well –the feeling of being angry at her over something and even more enraged with himself because of how he'd lashed out and hurt her before.

"And I don't know, maybe you're right and it was mainly the concussion affecting you when you lashed out like that, but there was still truth in what you said and somewhere deep down you had to have already been feeling like that-"

"No!" He argued, "I certainly never expected for us to end up here, in the beginning there was so much I didn't know about you and then after I found out –I made the decision to stay. I knew the risks and chose to be with you regaurdless. You're not responsible for the bad stuff that's happened in my life." He assured her, replaying the things he'd said to her in the hospital over and over in his head, tormenting himself with the soundtrack of his harsh words mixed with the look on her face.

"Harvey-" Bird began to argue, but he didn't give her the chance as he conceded, "Yes, there have been bad times, but we have good times too and even with all of the pain, I wouldn't take a bit of it back."

"I'm still in deep, you know? With Falcone and the crime family… and I'm not sure how long it's going to have to stay this way." Bird admitted.

"But it won't be forever." Harvey reminded her.

"It's temporary, but for right now-"

"For right now I can deal with it." He assured her, "It's not going to be a permanent thing in your life, but I want to be. We will do what we need to –to get past the temporary."

Reaching up she wiped the rain from her eyes and her hair out of her face to get a better look at him and he could see the anger still prevalent in her eyes as she spoke, "You always say the right things…"

Pulling in breath she admitted, "I can't keep doing this back and forth, Harvey. If you want to be with me, than you have to be with me… even on the darkest of nights."

"I promise." He said stepping up to her and resting his hands on her sides as he blinked the rain from his eyes, "I love you and I promise I'll stand by you, through everything."

Despite the frigid cold air blowing through the rain, her eyes felt like someone was holding a match to them and she was thankful for all of the rain running over her face; thankful that if a tear broke free he wouldn't be able to see it.

"And what about the bad nights? The nights where it's just too dark and love just doesn't feel like enough?" She asked, her voice barely audible over the sounds of passing traffic and rain hitting the ground.

"Then we'll sit up together, and watch one of those late night medical documentaries they show on TV that you like to watch until the sun comes up and chases the dark away." He replied with a smile.

"You hate those-"

"But I love you… and my point is that the dark can't last forever –eventually the sun will come up; it always does."

Taking her chin in his hand, he gently trailed his thumb over her bottom lip and leaned in close as he whispered, "I love you."  
Her eyes moved back and forth across his face and but she couldn't bring herself to smile as she whispered back, "And I love you."

Tilting her face up to meet his, he claimed her mouth in a heated kiss and soon she wasn't even aware of the cold rain still pouring down on them –he was the center of her every thought and as much as she wanted to believe every word he said; hope was a feeling she growing less and less familiar with.

She needed to believe in what he said, needed to believe that the plan she and Oswald had been working out to ignite a gang war and set the Don's against each other was still falling into place. She had to have hope that it would only be a few more months of working under Falcone until they brought his operation down to the ground and she'd be free to choose her own path in life.

 **~(Days later)~**

"What are you doing in here?" Jim gruffly asked when he saw Bird leaned against the wall in the interrogation room.

"I'm bored." She complained, "You drag me down here in the middle of the night… I want to at least see how this plays out."

"Dragged you down here?" He scoffed, "It's not the middle of the night and we found you wandering around Arkham Bridge Park in the dark!"

He sighed as he thought of how his night had turned out; it began with a date with Lee, who had cooked a delicious dinner. Then his girlfriend had gotten it into her had that it would be more exciting to go looking for a murder weapon in the dead of night when she felt like she'd solved the message they'd been handed from the circus's blind fortune teller, Paul Cicero, claimed had been sent to him from beyond the grave –a message from Lila Valeska herself.

While they'd been trekking around in the dark, they'd stumbled across Bird, who'd been following a man she needed to bring to Falcone. Lee seemed concerned and didn't want to leave her there alone, and Jim had a feeling that she wasn't up to anything good, so they'd gotten her to come back to the station with them.

"I had a good reason to be there." She defended, and when he gave her an expectant look she argued, "A good reason that I don't have to share with you. Plus, come on… watching someone else being interrogated sounds like fun."

"Fun?" He practically huffed, adding an eye roll to show how annoyed he was and how strongly he disagreed with her being there.

"Yes, fun." She snapped, with an eye roll of her own before she smirked and reminded him, "I came through when you needed the goods on Flass to put him away. I've gotten you out of a few different messes-"

"Are you threatening me?"

"Of course not." She answered with feigned innocence.

"Everything alright?" Lee asked as she walked into the room and saw the angry look on Jim's face as he spoke to Bird.

Giving her a smile he nodded before turning back to Bird and said, "You can stay… but you don't say a word and don't interfere."

"Promise." Bird agreed, clearly thrilled to be getting her way.

Jim looked over to Lee as he asked, "You're sure you want to be here for this? Things can get-"

"I can handle it." She assured him with a smile that gave away to her own excitement to be there.

Shaking his head he motioned to a few uniformed officers to bring Paul Cicero in. Moments later they walked the blind fortune teller in and got him seated at the table.

"Good evening Mr. Cicero, sorry to bring you down here so late." Jim said as he took his jacket off and hung it over the back of his own seat before sitting down across from him.

"Good evening Detective Gordon and to you as well Dr. Thompkins." He greeted, pausing for a moment before adding, "You must be the one they call Bird."

Glancing around the room she nodded, "That's me."

Jim glanced at her before turning his attention back to Paul and saying, "We've solved Lila's message… took us to Arkham Bridge Park, where we found a hatchet… with Satanist symbols scratched into it."

"Dear Lord…" Paul breathed, removing his sun glasses and laying them out on the metal table in front of him.

"Do you know what that means, Mr. Cicero?" Jim continued.

"Tell me." He replied.

"It means you're an accessory to murder-"

"Such drama!" He exclaimed, "I merely passed along a message."

"A message from the dead?" Jim asked before silencing him, "It didn't happen, which means you invented the message –meaning you had someone plant the hatchet for us to find and wanted us to think that Satanists were responsible for Lila's death."

Bird and Lee exchanged looks, and for a moment Bird thought Paul was going to go down for the murder she knew Jerome committed until Jim added, "You're protecting somebody."

"Lila spoke to me, that's all." Paul insisted.

In the beginning Lee had thought maybe there was something to what the fortune teller had said, and once she'd solved the message her belief only grew stronger, but now she was starting to see that she misunderstood the situation.

"No." Jim declined, motioning to the uniform officer standing just inside of the door to bring in their other suspect as he continued, "The hatchet was a clumsy ploy, you wouldn't have tried unless you were desperate which suggests you're protecting someone close, someone you love."

Clicking his tongue, Paul argued, "This fantasia… was conjured in your blinkered mind. If you could only see what I see."

As the door opened Jim looked up and smiled as he said, "Hello Jerome. Please, take a seat."

Slowly walking into the room, his hands were in his pants pockets as he scanned the people inside –his gaze lingering on Bird for a second longer than the rest before he sat down at the table next to Paul.

"You know Mr. Cicero, from the show?" Jim asked.

"Yes, sir." Jerome answered, turning to the man beside him and adding, "Hello, Mr. Cicero."

"Good evening, Jerome."

Sitting down across from the pair, Jim glanced behind him to where Lee and Bird were standing next to each other. He held his silence when he turned back to his suspects, letting them stew in the stale air for a while until he asked, "Do you know why you're here?"

Jerome's eyes darted to Bird before he looked back to Jim and leaned across the table slightly and asked, "Did you find out who killed my mother?"

"You killed your mother, Jerome." Jim answered with an unwavering gaze.

Looking completely taken aback he gasped, "Me?"

"You killed her up on that hill and then Mr. Cicero let you clean up in his trailer, and he told you to scratch the Satanist stuff into the hatch and throw it off the bridge."

Staring at Jim, Jerome accused, "Sir, that… that is absurd and offensive."

"But it's the truth." Jim asserted, "What I don't know is why this man risked so much to help you. I think this man is your father."

With a small laugh Jerome argued, "You don't know what you're talking about. My father was a sea captain."

Seeing the redhead's gaze travel past him, Jim glanced back to Lee and then over to Bird before focusing back across the table from him, "Am I wrong, Mr. Cicero?"

"Yes!" He insisted.

When Jerome wouldn't accept it and argued that his father's name was Sven Carlson and had died at sea, Jim pushed him for more info –but Jerome didn't know the name of his ship –including which one he'd went down in.

Lee's expression turned to one of empathy when Jerome's voice started to crack and tears filled up in his eyes, but Bird watched the situation playing out in front of her intently.

"We can do a paternity test, results take us half an hour –isn't that right Dr. Thompkins?" Jim asked.

"Yes." She finally agreed after taking a few seconds to find her words.

"Save yourself a needle." Jim pleaded looking to Paul, who finally sighed and admitted, "I do hate needles… I'm sorry Jerome."

"What are you talking about?" Jerome choked out, looking to the man sitting next to him.

"He's right, I am your father."

"No… no you're not, why would you say that?" He whined, more tears stinging at his eyes as his head shook back and forth like he couldn't accept the information.

"You must have suspected the truth-"

"You're not my father, my mother would never have-"

"Your mother was a cruel woman! She was often unkind to me, but she did once love me…in her way." Reaching out and placing a hand over his son's hand, Paul assured him, "And she loved you very much, that's why she gave you a better father."

Starting to cry, Jerome lowered his head and within moments the sounds of his sobs echoed through the room. Feeling bad for the eighteen year old, Lee started to walk closer to provide him some comfort, but Jim shook his head and stopped her, instructing her to stay where she was at.

Bird watched Jerome as he continued to cry, and she waited for the other shoe to drop. She'd seen him switch from crying and pretending to be upset, into something much darker once before –and she had a feeling the switch was about to be flipped again.

Finally his tears stopped and his sobs turned into a loud, drawn out menacing laugh. Lee stepped back to where she had been standing and Jim straightened in his seat as he stared into what he felt were the eyes of evil.

"My mother was a cold-hearted whore who never loved anyone and she'd never touch a pathetic, old creep like you." Jerome taunted, turning in his seat more to speak directly to Paul Cicero.  
His voice had lost every last trace of innocence and sorrow, and replaced by malice and much like when he'd shown his true colors to Bird just days before –there was a snakes hiss that seemed to touch almost every single word that left his tongue.

"All these years…" Paul sighed, adjusting uncomfortably in his seat as he argued, "Do you think I was kind to you because I'm such a good man? If I wasn't your father, would I help you as I have? After what you did?"

With his secret out, Jerome flipped his head back and looked at Jim, before his eyes moved past him to Bird who's expression was steady, but he caught a glimpse of amusement in her eyes.

All this time he'd been thinking if anyone outed him for what he'd done it was going to be her, but the night just seemed to be full of surprises.

"My father?" He breathed with a look on his face like he was currently tossing the idea around in his head and seeing how the term sounded out loud, "Hmm, I'll be damned." He shrugged, looking around with an entertained smile as the salty tears dried on his cheeks.

The room fell quiet and Bird glanced around, Jim had warned her to be quiet and stay out of what was happening, but she just couldn't help seize the chance to stir things up a bit more, "Now might be the right time to ask for a lawyer."

Lee looked over at her surprised, and Jim turned his head and shot her a look before he motioned to the uniformed officer by the door and said, "Alright, get her out of here."

"Come on!" She complained, backing away from the approaching officer, with thoughts of how things were just starting to get interesting.

Jerome watched the chaos starting to break out in the room with wide, excited eyes. Getting the most enjoyment out of how much it seemed like Detective Gordon couldn't wait to get Bird out of the room, to no doubt ask him more questions about his mother's murder.

Once she was quite literally pulled out of the interrogation room, and told to wait on a bench. Bird dropped into a seat and leaned her head back against the wall.

She'd been sitting there for just under ten minutes when she looked up to see Jim walking towards her with a determined look on his face.

"Stand up." Jim instructed.

Rising to her feet Bird arched a brow and sighed, "You know, the word 'please' goes a long way-"

"How well do you know Jerome Valeska?"

"I don't." She shrugged, her eyes narrowing as she questioned, "Why?"

Jim stared at her for what she felt had to be at least a minute before he seemed to accept the answer.

"What's going on?" Bird pushed, her curiosity growing more by the second, "Didn't you get your confession?"

"Not entirely." Jim admitted with his jaw tensed in anger.

Before he could say anything else to her, another detective walked over and quietly said, "Just got off the phone; Essen said if she's up for it, it's a go."

When he walked away Jim turned back to Bird and admitted, "No, I didn't get his confession. Not all of the details at least. He won't tell me anything, not anymore."

"And this involves me, because…" Her voice trailed off, having no idea where the conversation was headed, but the look on his face was humorous enough, it was crystal clear he wasn't happy in the slightest.

"He won't talk because you left." Jim finally admitted, "In fact, he says he'll only talk to you."

A smile broke through her confused expression and she let out a small laugh as she asked, "What? You can't be serious?"

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" He nearly snapped at her.

"I don't know, Jim. I've barely even seen you smile honestly-"

He let out a heavy sigh and shook his head back and forth, he thought this was a crazy, reckless plan –probably orchestrated because the red haired boy he had in custody seemed to be getting a kick out of getting under his skin and he'd showed how much he hadn't wanted Bird in the room when he had her removed.

It was a crazy plan, he was sure of it, but possibly just crazy enough to work.

"So here's what you're going to do." Jim instructed, "We keep him focused and on point, and we try to keep him talking. Don't engage him, I'm still going to ask the questions and assuming he was telling the truth –he should answer with you being there."

Pausing to take a breath he asked, "Can you handle that?"

With a smirk Bird asked, "Bet you wish you'd just left me at Arkham Bridge Park now, huh?"

"This is serious." He reminded her, "This is a homicide investigation… official police business and I don't like any of this, but it's all we've got. So can you handle this?"

"Sure, why not." Bird agreed to his relief, and as he led her back to the interrogation room he continued to try and prep her on what she should and shouldn't do.

The door to the room opened and Jerome looked over his shoulder to see Jim had returned with Bird, just like he'd demanded.

A smile spread over his lips at the control he'd gotten over the situation, the police already knew he'd done it.

But they wanted more –wanted the gory details and to know the ins and outs of what happened. They wanted everything he could tell them about the murder and because of that, they were bending to his demands.

He kept his eyes on her as she sat down across from him and thought back to when they'd first met, when she'd nearly uncovered his mother's lifeless body. He thought then that she knew something was off and he thought for sure after admitting the truth to her later that night that she'd have told someone, but she didn't.

Growing up the son of a performer in a circus side show, he'd traveled all around the country and met all walks of life, but he was fairly sure that Bird was the only other murderer he'd come in contact with so far –which intrigued him.

He saw the darkness in her eyes when she'd so easily pegged him for his crime, yet here she was walking around the police station like an average non-bloodthirsty citizen.

"I held up my end of the deal." Jim announced, as he stood next to the seat Bird was sitting in, the single chair on that side of the table, before asserting, "I'm still the one asking the questions.

"Four words, repeat after me." Bird said, a smile toying at the corner of her mouth knowing how much she was going to get under Jim's skin with her next words, "I want a lawyer."

Bird felt one of his hands land on the back of her chair and she looked up to see the warning look Jim shot her.

Not acknowledging her words, Jerome grinned as he greeted, "Hello beautiful."

"That's enough!" Jim sternly said, his eyes dark as he looked to Jerome. But his quick to anger demeanor only amused the teenager further as he raised his eyebrows and asked, "Ooh, did I hit a nerve?" Looking to Bird, he then glanced back up at Jim and guessed, "She's important to you?"

"We're not here to talk about her. We're here to find out why you killed your mother, Jerome." Jim argued.

Lee shook her head back and forth, she'd told Jim she didn't like this idea. Looking into Jerome's eyes for just a moment felt like she was staring into a deep, dark hole and she was across the room from him –she couldn't imagine willingly sitting that close after the switch in him had been flipped.

She'd tried to warn Jim against listening to him and bringing Bird in, warning him that Bird herself wasn't much older than Jerome and being face-to-face, engaged in a conversation with a disturbed mind like his –could have a profound and lasting effect on her psyche.

"Why did you want me here?" Bird questioned.

"The room was too dull after you left." He answered, with a wink. So clearly acting like everything was now a game to him.  
His secret was already out, so why not have some fun and play games before they tried to lock him up for what he'd done.

Bird stared blankly back at him, waiting for his next move or hear what he had to say next.

"Cat got your tongue?" He joked.

Clearing his throat Jim, asked, "Why did you kill your mother, Jerome?"

Ignoring the detectives question he kept his eyes on Bird and complained, "You're being too quiet."

"I was told to not engage you in conversation." She flatly stated, giving a small nod in Jim's direction as she spoke.

"Oh?" Jerome exclaimed, grinning wider as he continued, motioning dramatically to himself with both arms "Allow me then."

Thinking back to when she'd told him that she'd lost her parents not long ago, he asked, "How did your parents die?"

Jim opened his mouth to tell her she didn't have to answer that, but Bird calmly replied, "Robbery turned murder –they were shot to death in an alley." Pausing for a moment she thought out loud, "If you were from around here you'd already know that… my family name is kind of a big deal in Gotham."

"What about your mom?" Bird asked, pushing for information.

Still choosing not to answer any questions he was being asked, Jerome continued to pick her mind and asked, "Are you still learning things about them, even after they're dead?"

"At times." She stated.

Glancing back to Paul who was still sitting beside him, he reasoned, "It's very funny, isn't it? Learning someone's secrets after their gone."

"Not sure if funny is the word I'd use." Bird admitted, with raised eyebrows and an otherwise blank expression.

"Come on…" He said as he started to laugh again, making the air feel like it was eerily shifting in the room before he held out his hands like he had a hold of drumsticks and made sound effects like he was hitting a symbol on a drum set for a joke.

Jerome raised his eyebrows as he watched her waiting for a reaction, but she didn't give one. Leaning over the table some, he lowered his head and looked at her from under his eyebrows as he nodded towards Paul and said, "Come on? My Father?" With another laugh, he continued to stare at her as he said with a hiss to his words, "Looks like the bitch got me with a zinger in the end!"

Bird's head lowered slightly as she fought against the smile toying at the corner of her lips. It was sick, she knew that, but the conversation was certainly a break from monotony and seeing everyone else's horrified expressions at his behavior was a plus.

She started to consider that maybe she'd been spending far too much time with Victor Zsasz and his sadism was rubbing off on her.

His eyes moved back and forth over her face, feeling a sense of accomplishment when he caught sight of her dimples as she fought against the urge to smile.

"That's enough." Jim sighed, "Jerome-"

Cutting him off, Jerome looked to Bird and asked, "Tell me about your mother."

"I've answered your questions… now it's your turn." She countered, and he grew even more entertained as he leaned back in his seat and nodded, "The spotlight is all yours..."

"Why'd you kill your mom?"

"Come on, sunshine." He hissed, before nodding towards Jim and continued, "That's his question, not yours."

"See, my mother and I didn't get along… but, no matter how mad she made me, I never would have hurt her." Bird explained, gesturing with her hand for him to speak she added, "For my own curiosity… why'd your kill her?"

"Oh, you know how mothers are." He dismissively answered, waiving a hand through the air. A wave of anger pooling in his expression and his voice lowered, "She just kept pushing."

"Tell me about your mother." He repeated, solely focused on her. Jim looked between them as he fought the urge to cut in and say that this wasn't a game, but somehow Bird was getting more information out of him than he was.

"She was great." Bird remembered, "Smart and beautiful, one of the kindest most genuine people you could ever meet. She loved me… even at my worst."

"Must have been nice." Jerome commented, staring her down as he said, "Mine was a cold-hearted bitch-"

"So you've said." Bird cut him off.

His head cocked slightly to the side before he explained, "She was always pushing me, always. So I was finally like, fine mom… be a whore. Be a drunken whore even, but don't be a nagging drunken whore." His words came out with a growl and a disturbing look of anger on his face, before all traces of the anger disappeared and he smiled at Bird as he continued, "You know?"

Bird glanced up to Jim, before turning her attention back to Jerome realizing he wasn't done talking when he continued, "Don't come yell at me to do the dishes, if you've been banging a clown in the next room!" He was yelling by the time he reached the end, and slammed his hand down hard against the table causing everyone in the room to jump except for Bird, who didn't seem at all put off from the situation. His voice lowered back to normal and he added, "You know?"

With that he burst into another fit of laughter as if he'd just told the funniest joke in the entire world, while nearly everyone stared at him like he must have been crazy.  
He was confessing to his mother's murder, looking to be spending the rest of his life behind bars and he was acting like it was all some sort of game.

"How did you kill her?" Jim finally asked, wanting a fool-proof confession that would undoubtedly send him away for the crime he'd committed.

When Jerome just kept laughing, Bird repeated the question, "How did you kill her?"

As abruptly as his fit of laughter surfaced, it was gone as he whipped his head back around to face her, "You really want to know?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't." She retorted, and Jerome let out another laugh before clearing his throat and slowly advancing forward towards the table, his upper half leaning over it so far that he was just barely hovering in his seat still.

The uniformed officer next to the door started to step forward for Bird's safety, unsure if Jerome was just toying with her or if he was about to react violently, but he stopped when Jim held up his hand to signal him to stop.

This was it, he was so close to having the full confession and he couldn't risk the officer interrupting the channel Jerome had created with Bird, where he was actually willing to talk to her.

"She wouldn't stop." Jerome said, his voice low as he remained leaned over the table to get closer to Bird, "The bitch just wouldn't stop her nagging and pushing… so I hit her, really hard on the side of her head and she went down. I thought…" He laughed, "I thought it must have cracked her skull, but when I looked down she was still breathing –still awake. Staring up to me like she just couldn't believe I'd hurt her."

"I was going to hit her again… but, then I saw the hatchet lying there and I picked it up. I didn't snap or fly into a rage, I just knelt down there beside her. Looked into her eyes as she pleaded for me to stop, begged me to go get help… and then I raised the hatchet up in the air and swung it down –I was aiming for her heart." He recalled, raising his hand up and slamming it back down on the table to startle all of them again, "Bam!" He yelled, "There was so much blood, and she was screaming. Of course, she'd tried to kick away so I missed her heart and it lodged in her stomach instead."

"And then…" Jerome grinned with his green eyes growing as dark as night, "I stabbed her again and again… all the blood it was like something from a movie. I wondered how many times I could cut into her before her insides turned into outsides."

Seeming to grow tired and bored of his reenactment and memories, he blew out a heavy sigh as he sat back into his seat and dismissively said, "She just wouldn't die though, there had to be more blood around her than there was left in her veins… but she kept crying and struggling and my arms were tired –that's when I started on her head and she finally just stopped moving."

Adjusting the sleeve on his sweater jacket, he added, "Of course, I got in a few more good strikes with the hatchet after she stopped moving, you know… to make sure she was really dead. I didn't go through all that trouble for her to survive." With a loud laugh, he smiled, "You know?"

The room fell into a dead silence, until Jim cleared his throat and motioned for the officer at the door as he began to say, "Jerome Valeska, you are under arrest for the murder of Lila Valeska."

The other officer pulled the eighteen year old to his feet and started to cuff his hands behind his back, while Jim continued to read him his rights.

Bird sat back in the chair she was in and watched as they started to pull Jerome from the room, as they were leading him out, he looked to her with a dark smile and commented, "That was fun… we should do it again sometime."

 **~(The next night)~**

"There you are." Harvey said as he found Bird standing out on her balcony with a blanket wrapped around her for warmth in the bitter air as she stared out into the city.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked, stepping up behind her and wrapping his arms around her, keeping the blanket tightly wrapped around her as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the side of her face.

He couldn't help but wonder if she'd went outside to put distance between them. They'd been back together for about a week now, but he wasn't able to shake the feeling that things were different between them.

Bird had been more distant than usual and there were times they were together when he felt like she didn't much want him around.

This was starting to turn into one of those times, until she finally leaned back against him appreciating the extra warmth as she admitted, "Couldn't sleep… I just keep thinking about last night."

"The G.C.P.D has done some questionable things, but they never shoulder have involved you in that." He said, his voice low and starting fill with anger as he added, "Jim should have never let that psycho near you."

He shook his head not liking the idea of Jerome taking any kind of interest in Bird. Being an attorney, he of course knew the value of a confession, but endangering a civilian in the process was something he couldn't get on board with.

Especially, when he wanted to get Bird as far away from the criminals in the city as he could.

"It's okay." She breathed, shrugging as she whispered, "After the week I've had, I needed some entertainment."

"That wasn't entertainment." Harvey argued, thinking back to when Bird had rehashed the entire thing for him, "By all accounts it was horrifying and Jerome Valeska is an extremely sick individual."

Silently, Bird nodded in agreement, though inside she was thinking that to a fellow sick mind –what had happened in that room was entertainment.

"It really messed with you, didn't it?" He guessed, thinking of how she'd seemed distracted since the interrogation had happened.

"No." She promised, "I just keep thinking about what Paul Cicero did –not just helping Jerome cover up the murder, but the way he was nearby the entire time he was growing up and just let him keep thinking his dad was killed at sea. Why would he do that, never tell him the truth?"

With a shrug Harvey suggested, "Maybe he really did love him and just wanted him to believe that his father was someone better."

"Yeah, but he was right there for the entire eighteen years –being nice and doing him favors, trying to be a father while never telling him the truth. I don't know… it's just got me thinking."

"Thinking about what?" Harvey questioned.

Bird thought back to when Liza had told her about the folder Falcone kept on her and all of the favors he'd done for her –including keeping her alive when her betrayals should have ended in death. Even going so far as to assigning Victor Zsasz to protect her when they're working.

It was crazy she thought, she was probably just finding a connection that wasn't there –but she could also hear his voice in her head, telling her how everything he's done was to make her stronger –shape her into the person she was meant to be.

Why would he even care, she wondered. Daring to let herself imagine for a moment that maybe Fish was wrong when she said his child had been killed, what if something else had happened and by some twist of fate that baby of his that everyone believed had been killed just over twenty years ago, was her?

Shaking the thoughts from her head, she turned around and rested her hands against Harvey's chest as she gave him a smile and said, "It's not important… just my tired head trying to connect dots that don't exist."  
A confused look spread over his face at her words, but Bird just smiled as she rose up and kissed him before suggesting, "Let's go back inside."

* * *

 **A/N – Thanks for reading! Ahh, guys I am getting so close to the end of season one and I can't wait to move into season 2 with Bird!**

 **I'd like to thank Miss Easily Obsessed, pierce through the heart, Saskia D. Fox, and Miss E Charlotte for reviewing the last chapter. Also a shout out to Maddie Rose as she works on getting caught up and leaves reviews along the way. :)**

 **I'm nearing 300 reviews now and I just want you all to know how thankful I am for all of you who have continued reading and the support you've shown for Bird. I remember when I first started writing this story, I wasn't even sure if anyone would be interested in reading it and now here we are 41 chapters in and I'm so excited for season 2!**


	42. Pretty Little Broken Things

**XLII**

 _"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."- Mae West_

* * *

Bird was in the middle of pulling some crumpled up cash from her pocket to pay for the fruit smoothie she'd ordered from the truck vendor on the street when her phone started to ring from her other pocket.

Blowing out a sigh, she handed the balled up money to the vendor before pulling her phone out to see who was calling her. When she saw the incoming call, was yet again, from Jim Gordon –she clicked the ignore button.

After getting her smoothie, she dropped her change into the tip jar and turned around to head back to where she'd left her car parked when her phone started to ring again.

She reached into her pocket and started to hit one of the buttons on the side of her phone to silence the call, until she considered that maybe it was her brother or someone other than Jim. But when she took it from her pocket to check, she groaned at seeing it was Jim calling again.

Just as she ignored the call and was internally swearing that if he called her one more time she was going to either silence or turn her phone off –she looked up and saw Jim leaned against his car watching her with his own phone in his hand.

He started walking in her direction and stated, "I've been trying to call you for the last few days."

"Really?" Bird questioned, letting out a breath and shrugging as she lied, "That's funny; my phone hasn't rang."

With that, she turned and started walking in a brisk pace in the opposite direction, forcing Jim to jog after her.

"Why are you always walking away from me?" He asked, as he closed in on her and reached out to grab her arm and bring her to a stop, "I'm just trying to talk to you."

"I'm busy." She complained, shrugging his grip off and trying to walk away again –but this time he got in front of her and blocked her path.

"Busy doing what?" He asked, with raised brows.

"What do you want, Jim?" She questioned, ignoring what he'd asked her.

"We need you to come down to the station. I left you a message-" He started to explain, but Bird shushed him as she let out a loud, dramatic sigh and finished, "Essen needs a statement from me about what happened in the room with Jerome. Yeah, I got your message. I'm not interested."

"It doesn't work like that." He argued, "You agreed to help with the interrogation, now you have to sign some papers and give a statement."

"What's the point?" Bird asked, "I mean you got everything you need from him, he admitted to killing his mom –in graphic detail. He's practically a shoo-in for Arkham, clearly he's crazy." A smile spread over her lips as she added, "He's funny, pretty much hilarious –but he's nuts."

"Funny?" He exclaimed, "What part of what happened in that room was funny to you?"

Taking a drink from her smoothie, Bird paused before laughing, "How about all of it?"

"How about none of it." He argued back, "We're talking about an eighteen year old kid who murdered his own mother."

"Well, according to that eighteen year old kid; she had it coming." Bird reminded him.

Jim bit down on the side of his tongue to keep from arguing with her, knowing it would get them nowhere and Bird always seemed ready to argue with him about anything and everything.  
Though, he had to admit that her complete lack of emotion on the subject was a bit disturbing –even more so if she was telling the truth about finding Jerome's antics entertaining.

"You knew, didn't you?" Jim asked, his eyes locking with hers, "You didn't seem the least bit surprised when he confessed."

"So what if I did?"

"If you knew, why didn't you tell me that first night at the police station. You knew we were trying to figure out who killed Lila Valeska and you withheld information."

"I'm not a rat, Jim." Bird reminded him, shaking her head and clearly enjoying how deep the situation had burrowed under his skin, "Come on, there is _some_ honor amongst criminals."

When he seemed even angrier than before and wouldn't comment on what she'd said, Bird stepped closer to him and held up her free hand as gestured with her index finger and thumb, "A tad bit, but still –there is some honor there."

"I can't tell if you're just trying to irritate me, or if you honestly don't realize how entirely screwed up that logic is." Jim admitted, pushing her hand out from in front of his face.

"What was I supposed to say?" Bird asked, still seeming entertained by how bothered he was, "Jim, I brought the poor grieving son a glass of water like you asked me too, oh and by the way –he admitted to killing his mother?"

"Yes!" He exclaimed, "That's exactly what you should have said. When he admitted the truth to you-"

"I informed him that he'd picked a terrible place to try and hide the body and then I warned him about you!" She loudly said back, "Told him that he'd better have a good plan, because Hero Cop James Gordon, rising star of the GCPD, is like a dog with a bone who can't let anything go."

With a shrug, Bird added, "I thought you were going to solve the case anyway, so what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that someone was killed, brutally murdered and you had knowledge of the crime that you didn't share –not even with me." The last part of his sentence snuck out before he could stop himself, and Bird thought she caught the blue glimpse of betrayal in his eyes.  
Causing her to think that maybe he was more upset that she hadn't been honest with him over the fact that she'd kept quiet in general.

"You take everything too seriously." She said, her tone softer than before as her gaze cut the ground.

"And you don't take anything seriously." He argued back, his tone was cold when he added, "I think I was wrong about you."

"What?" She asked looking back up to him with her glossed lips slightly open as if she had more to say, but couldn't form the words.

"Maybe you really are just as bad as the lowlife criminals you surround yourself with."  
His words hit her like a ton of bricks crushing her chest.

Though, Bird wasn't sure what was worse. The actual words, or how bad they hurt coming from his mouth.

"Yeah, well-" She started with a comeback to remind him that he never seemed to have a problem with her, or the lowlife criminals she surrounded herself with, when he needed a favor from her or Oswald, but she didn't get the chance as he gruffly said, "You've got till four o'clock today to swing by the station and give your statement, or you'll be brought in tomorrow."

He turned and walked away, leaving her feeling like the surrounding air had been entirely depleted of oxygen.

If she wanted to be viewed as a criminal then that's how he was going to treat her, he thought as he left her standing there and tried to forget the look in her eyes. Even if she'd only showed emotion for a split second, he saw his words cut deep.

Thinking back to the night he'd came by the dive bar to ask a favor from Oswald and herself to put Flass away for his crimes, Bird remembered telling Jim not to get too close to her.  
Only now, she was kicking herself for getting at all close to him –for ever going to him for help in the first place with anything at all.

"I warned you not to get too close!" She yelled after him, growing even more enraged when he wouldn't turn around and acknowledge her outburst.

Her breathing grew shallow and she could feel her face starting to heat up, she nearly broke the cup holding her smoothie when her both her hands started to ball up into fists.

"Screw you, Jim!" She screamed, causing everyone within earshot of them to look her way as she continued to shout, "I'm not coming by the station and the next time you want to talk to me about anything you can go through my lawyer!"

 **~(Days later)~**

"You knew Jim was seeing someone else?" Barbara asked with a hurt expression as she sat next to Bird on her couch.

Bird looked her friend over, she'd just shown up at her front door a few minutes ago upset because she'd seen Jim kissing someone when she'd gone to find him at the police station.

"I was trying to figure out how to tell you. I'm sorry, B." Bird admitted, reaching over and giving her hand a comforting squeeze.

"Have you met her?" Barbara questioned, her blue eyes watering as she made eye contact.

"A few times now."

"Tell me about her-"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?" Barbara exclaimed, "I need to know what I'm up against here."

Blowing out a sigh and knowing if the tables were reversed she'd want to know the information as well. "Her name is Leslie, she's a doctor… well, the medical examiner now. They met while Jim was working as a security guard for Arkham Asylum."

"Is she pretty?" Barbara asked, looking further upset as she added, "I didn't get a good look at her."

"She's very pretty." Bird sympathized with a frown.

Making a noise like she'd been punched in the chest, Barbara complained, "So she's beautiful? Beautiful and she's a doctor… so she's smart too. How does she act? Is she nice?"

Bird silently nodded and her friend seemed even more distressed from the newly learned information.

"Do you think he loves her?" She finally asked in a dry tone, mentally trying to prepare herself to hear that the man she'd built her life around wasn't interested in her anymore.

"I'm not sure." Bird answered, but feeling she needed to be honest with her, she clarified, "But they do seem happy together."

"Of course they do…" She breathed, wiping her cheeks. "I've been beating myself up for leaving in the first place, feeling like the worst girlfriend on earth for running out on him when times got tough-"

"Hey, times got more than tough, okay?" Bird cut in, "Life got impossible and the things you went through screwed with your head and it's not all on you. You told me that he pulled away from you."

"He did; but then after I left…" Barbara's voice cracked and she tucked her hair back behind her ears, "Do you want to hear the message he left me after I was gone for a couple days?"

Without giving the brunette time to respond, Barbara pulled her cellphone out and played the voicemail on speaker: _"Barbara, it's me. I got your letter and I, um, I know you said you needed some time away from Gotham –away from me. But I want you to come back, I need you… come back, I don't have anything without you… and I love you."_

Letting her phone fall to the coffee table, her voice was broken as she asked, "What happened to that? What happened to him not having anything without me?"

"I don't know." Bird whispered, shaking her head side to side.  
Sliding closer to her on the couch, Bird thought back to when Jim kissed her at the hospital and she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach for withholding the information from her friend,she softly added, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Barbara cleared her throat, "You didn't do anything wrong."

Her words only twisted up Bird's stomach more and even though she knew the standup thing would be to admit what happened between herself and Jim, she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

The silent tears that had been falling down Barbara's face turned into audible sobs and she leaned her head onto Bird's shoulder, thankful to at least have someone there with her.  
Bird wrapped an arm around her in a side-hug; she felt so bad for seeing how much pain her friend was in. She'd had had her fair share of fights and a few splits from Harvey, but she couldn't imagine what it would feel like to see him falling for another woman.

"The way I feel about Jim… I've never loved anyone else like that." She cried, the tears running down her face and soaking into the shoulder of Bird's shirt as she continued to sob. "Those kind of loves are always supposed to win, aren't they? Isn't that what everyone says? That love always finds a way…"

"That is what they say." Bird agreed.

"Do you think I could still get him back?" Barbara sobbed out her question.

"I think that weeks ago, I was sure it was over between me and Harvey. I closed myself off of the possibility we could work it out, because I was so convinced it wouldn't happen… and then somehow we just fell right back into things again and it really almost feels like that month apart didn't exist –it was just some shared nightmare we had and managed to wake up from."  
Pulling in a ragged breathed and tightening the hug she had her friend in, Bird continued, "You and Jim were together for a long time, you've got history –been there for each other through the good and the bad. Lee has a medical license and penchant for mixing the right dress with the wrong shoes."

Her words caused Barbara to choke out a laugh through her tears and sniffling. "Thanks, B." Barbara quietly said, still keen on reusing the nickname for her friend, that Bird had bestowed upon her.

"Are you sure you even want Jim back?" Bird quietly asked and could immediately feel the blonde tense up beside her. Not wanting to give her much of a chance to argue, she quickly continued, "I know you said he made you feel like a whole person, and I get that –believe me, I understand. But, maybe instead of obsessing over getting him back… I don't know, maybe you should try and focus on yourself."

"I got a haircut and bought some new clothes and-"

"No, B." Bird shook her head, "I don't mean physically, I mean work on feeling like a whole person –by yourself. You don't need him."

"You really don't think I can get him back, do you?" Barbara nearly gasped.

"Why do you even want him back?" Bird couldn't stop herself from asking, nor could she shield the tinge of bitterness that infected her tone when she muttered, "What's so great about Jim Gordon anyway?"

Her eyes seemed to gain back some life as Barbara tried to explain, "Being with Jim was like… swimming in the ocean at night and getting too far away from the shore. You know, the water is dark and you can't see below the surface. All you want to do is swim back to show, seek out the safety of dry land. But then you don't, because there's something about the darkness and danger that makes you feel alive."

A sad smile graced her face and Barbara continued, "Other times being with him was comparable to standing on the sun. So much good, so much light that sometimes it burns." Giving a small shrug she added, "I've never felt anything like that before. Jim's a good man, but he's got so much darkness in him."

When Bird wouldn't make eye contact with her any longer, her eyebrows lowered and Barbara apologized, "I'm sorry I came here like this. I know you've got your problems, I just… I didn't have anywhere else to go-"

"You don't need to apologize. You're always welcome here." Bird assured her.

Rubbing a comforting hand over Barbara's arm, she warned, "You should know though, that it seems like every single wrong I try to right, only ever makes things worse. So you might want to reconsider calling me a friend."

Raising her head and wiping her eyes with her hands, Barbara somehow managed to smile again through the pain and repeated the sentiment Bird had given her when she'd been handed a similar warning, "Right now, you're all I've got."

"How are things with you and Harvey now that you're back together?" She asked, ready to focus on something else for the time being and try to bleach the image of Jim kissing Lee from her haunted mind.

"Great." Bird didn't offer any information with her single word response.

"Did you forget who you're talking too?" The blonde questioned. "You don't have to put that mask on with me. Everything is not great, I know you better than that."

"We're, uh…" She breathed, "We've been looking at real-estate listings and meeting with an agent to help us find a place. He wants to move in together and-"

"You don't want to?" Barbara immediately picked up on the what she said.

"Honestly…" Bird breathed, "I'm not sure if it's just that he's ready to take this next step in our relationship or if he thinks it's going to be easier to keep me out of trouble if we're living together."

Her gaze dropped to the floor as she spoke. She wanted to believe that things were better between them again and that all was well, that he seemed to be rushing to find them a place to move to together simply because he couldn't wait for them to turn a house into their home.

But the more she thought about it, the more the move felt rushed and with his refusing to accept certain aspects of her life, she'd been losing sleep with wondering if this was some last ditch effort to assert some control over her.  
Maybe Harvey didn't even realize he was doing it intentionally.

"Isn't it supposed to the girl who gets into a relationship with plans and hopes to change the guy and not the other way around?" Barbara tried to joke when she saw just how distressed Bird appeared to be.

Her words earned a smile from her friend, but it was a smile that didn't come near reaching her eyes.

"It's just…" Bird swallowed hard and tried to sort the mess of thoughts out in her head to verbalize at least an ounce of what she was feeling, "He's a great guy, you know? And I just keep thinking of how much my parents would have liked him, how relieved they'd be to see me with someone like him and how much my brother likes him and then…" Her voice trailed off and she found herself at war with the floor of mixed emotions.

"And then, what?" Barbara pushed.

"I knew I wasn't an angel –before I met him, I mean I was aware of the bad things I've done… the bad things I continue to do. But I didn't really think I was _that bad_ of a person. Only now, being with him and seeing how he pretty much refuses to accept the worst parts of me, it just makes me start to question everything and sometimes it makes me feel less than human." Bird admitted for the first time out loud what had been troubling her for quite some time.

Maybe there was too much of an imbalance in their relationship, more so than she'd even suspected at the beginning.

You can take the girl out of organized crime, but it wasn't so easy to take the criminal out of the girl. She knew very well who she was and what she'd done in her life and Harvey just expected he to entirely drop a piece of who she was, just leave it at the wayside and start their lives together; but deep down she was afraid.

Afraid that even if she managed to suppress that part of herself, that it couldn't stay buried forever.  
Perhaps even a bigger part of her was afraid that she didn't really want to part with the darkness in the first place.

"It's not as fun as it looks in the movies."

"What?" Bird asked, caught entirely off guard and confused by her friend's words.

"Being a pretty little broken thing." Barbara clarified, "In the movies there always some hero to come along and sweep up your broken pieces and glue them back together, but it just doesn't work like that in real life."

This time it was Bird, who rested her head on Barbara's shoulder as she softly added, "In real life, sometimes there aren't even enough pieces left to glue back together."

 **~(A few days later)~**

When Bird heard a knock on her door, she opened it without looking through the peephole –she assumed it was Barbara again. The blonde had been coming over daily to have someone to talk to.

"Hey…" She breathed with a surprised look on her face when she saw her little brother dressed in a suit and tie; looking clean cut as ever and more grown up than she remembered.

"Hello." Bruce greeted.

Still not sure what was going on, Bird looked past him into the hallway and asked, "Where's Alfred?"

"Waiting in the car; I was hoping we could speak, if you have the time." Bruce said, looking his sister over. It had been well over a month since the last time she'd come by Wayne Manor or even called on the phone.

Giving him a smile she assured, "For you little brother? I've always got time."

Stepping to the side she let him in and he looked around the living room, he'd only been in her apartment a handful of times and the last time had to have been at least a year ago. Somehow the space seemed less crowded and less chaotic than he remembered.

Sitting down in one of her chairs he asked, "How have you been?"

"I've been well." She replied, "Busy, but well. What about you?"

"Fine, thank you." He politely replied before asking, "What have you been so busy with?"

"A lot of things…" She vaguely answered, "Some work things and also Harvey and I have been looking for a house together. I kept meaning to stop by and check up on you, but there just aren't enough hours in the day."

"Congratulations." He said with a small smile, "The last you spoke of him, you told me you'd been having some trouble."

"All resolved now." Bird smiled, hoping to sell the lie.  
She glanced around for a few moments before she questioned, "Not that it's not great to see you, but is there any certain reason you came by? It's not like you to show up out of the blue."

"I met with the board at Wayne Enterprises this morning." He explained, "I called a meeting because I had several things to discuss with them."

"Right, I remember you trying to get that all set up… how did it go?"

"Not very well, they dismissed everything I had to say about business affairs when I brought up chemical weapons manufacturing at WellZyn and underworld involvement within in the Arkham project." Bruce explained, shaking his head as he replayed the meeting in his head.

Nothing about it had set well with him, in fact, it still wasn't.

"It makes perfect sense that high level induvial within the company have been a part of the corruption, I laid out most of what I've already uncovered and in turn was told I'd given them nothing with substance or proof."

"So what happened?" Bird asked, her eyebrows lowered.

"I led them to believe I knew much more than what I had told them; asked them to look closely into the issues, because I may be bringing these matters up at the next shareholders' meeting and have grounds for possible legal actions." He admitted, before adding, "They tried to turn it back on my age –as if my youth makes the facts I've unearthed irrelevant."

"Bruce, I need you to be careful." Bird cautioned, "There's a possibility that you were sitting in the same room with people involved in the criminal activity you were talking about and when you back an animal into a corner –nine times out of ten, they're going to strike back."

"I understand the seriousness of what has been happening-"

"Yes, but there are risks. Bruce… we're talking about deep corruption in a multi-billion dollar company with ties and properties all over and even outside of Gotham, along with bribery, racketeering and whatever the hell kind of medical research they're covering up at WellZyn. I want you to be careful, because it's so clear that our parent's murders are linked to the company somehow and it's not that much a stretch to think they might come after you next." Bird warned.

"Let them." Bruce simply answered, thinking that with his training and Alfred teaching him to fight that if they did come for him, he'd be ready this time. Not like when he'd stood there and watched his parents be killed.  
His attention focused on her as he realized, "You've still been looking into the company as well, haven't you?"

"Of course I have." Bird shook her head as she spoke, "They killed mom and dad, I'm not just going to let that go, but I've been taking care to make sure no one else knows I'm digging around. I mean someone thought Selina had seen something and they sent trained assassins after her, we have to be smart about this."

"I agree one-hundred percent." Bruce nodded, "Which leads to why I'm here. Our combined shares equal out to fifty-one percent, more than half and I wish you would have come with me today. We need to show a united front to the board."

"Okay." Bird agreed, "Then you need to start being a little more subtle. I know it's eating away at you that the company is involved in illegal activity and you want to put a stop to it right now –but from what we know the corruption has been going on for a long, long time. I think it's smart to let things continue as they are –just until we have enough concrete evidence to back it up."

"Sounds reasonable." Bruce agreed, staring at his sister until he finally questioned, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why?" She dismissed.

"I'm concerned." He softly said, you seem different from when we last spoke."

"I'm fine." Bird said in a dry tone.

"Are you sure?" Bruce asked, knowing his sister well enough to know that she'd always claim to be okay, not matter what was going on in her lifel

"I think I would know how I'm feeling." She answered, with a hint of irritation in her voice.

Nodding he was going to accept the answer, but instead he let out a small sigh and explained, "I'm only asking because you seem… tormented, and when I don't see you regularly, I don't know enough to help."

"You're getting worked up over nothing." Bird said, standing up with him and leading him towards the door as she smiled, "I'm okay, but you shouldn't keep Alfred waiting too long."

 **~(Later that week)~**

"No, no, no!" Bird sighed rubbing her forehead and looked to the waiter at Oswald's club who was trying to stock the freshly procured alcohol to its place below the bar.

"You know what, just move… I'll fix it." She breathed shooing him off in the other direction. Ridiculous, she thought, she wasn't even working in the club any longer and she still knew how to maneuver the territory better than the people her friend had hired on.

"You should be working here, it's where you belong." Butch commented as he sat the case of vodka down on top of the bar.

Bird gave him a smile as she grabbed a couple bottles from the crate and leaned back down to set them in their rightful place.

"No, honestly I think my time in the nightclub scene is over." Bird admitted, pausing to look at him as she added, "Plus, this was the perfect way to convince Falcone to let you go. This place is a money maker and he can't afford to let it go under –he was desperate. Desperate enough to listen to what I had to say about bringing you in to help Oswald."

Pouring himself a drink, Butch gave a small nod before staring down into his glass. Not wanting to remember anything he'd been put through.

"I did try sooner to get you released. Right after the old man gave Oswald the club, Falcone was trying to figure out a place for me in the family now… but, he wouldn't hear any of it. Made it loud and clear that I was in no place to be asking for favors or negotiating." She explained.

"Well, I'm out now." He commented, thinking how in many ways it was still like being held prisoner.  
His free will had been taken away from him and now he was sentenced to following Oswald's every command.  
After another drink he looked at her and said, "A hell of a lots changed too. I get back up here and Penguin's running the club and you're working with Zsasz –never saw that one coming."

"Yeah…" Bird breathed, "He sent Victor to bring me in and I completely panicked and I ran, we both ended up in the river and by the time he got to Falcone's mansion, the both of us all were all beaten and bloody. Falcone said he didn't know too many people who could hold their own against his number one enforcer and apparently considered it a waste of my talent to keep working here."

"Sounds more like punishment, if you ask me." Butch commented, as he finished off the last of his drink.

Bird's lips pursed into a thin line, she'd been close to Butch for years and it ate her up inside thinking about the horrors that had been inflicted upon him. She wanted to let him know that she'd gotten Fish safely out of Gotham, but she held her silence.

He was conditioned to be entirely loyal and blindly follow Oswald's every command, she couldn't risk him spilling the truth to anyone about what had happened.

If Oswald found out she'd helped Fish, he'd probably never forgive her and she couldn't help but wonder if that would be the final nail in her coffin where Falcone was concerned.

Just as he started to pour himself another, Oswald came over to them and leaned against the bar.  
Once he'd found out Maroni wouldn't help supply the club with alcohol, the only way he thought of keeping the bar stocked was to intercept a shipment and take it all for himself –it was going to be bloody and messy, but seemed to be the only way.  
That was until a pair of officers showed up on the scene, and he thought his last hope was gone –until Butch informed him that they were working for him.

The move had gone off without a hitch, and the night seemed to keep turning up. When he'd gotten back to the bar, Bird had been there waiting to see him and had now helped him get the bar set back up the way it should be. Something all of his workers continued to fail at.

Pouring a glass for not only him, but one for Bird and Oswald as well, Butch slid the glass to Bird where she stopped it just in front of her on the bar and then held the other out to Oswald as he toasted, "To new beginnings."

Taking the glass, Oswald brought it up to his nose and sniffed in so deeply it almost appeared like he was going to inhale the liquid from the glass.

"Paranoid?" Bird asked, taking a small drink from her glass and looking to her best friend.

With a sigh Butch promised, "I'm not trying to kill you, son."

"Forgive me if I'm a little cautious." Oswald remarked, rolling his eyes and looking between them as he started to wonder what they had been talking about before he joined them.

"If this club tanks… Falcone's not gonna trust either of us again." Butch explained, as he picked his own glass up.

"He's right." Bird agreed, "And it's not going to reflect well on me either, I promised him that with Butch's help you could turn this place around, Oswald."

"And I don't know about either of you, but I'm done playing the sidekick." Butch nodded.

Deciding that his drink was safe to consume, Oswald looked between them and nodded as he held out his glass for a toast, "To no longer being a sidekick."  
With that the trio all clanked their glasses together and drank to the toast.

Butch started to refill their glasses, but Bird stopped him, "No more for me thanks."

Looking up she was met by two stunned, disbelieving expressions and she asked, "What?"

"Bird…" Oswald said, clearing his throat as he thought of a way to say that he'd never known her to ever turn down a drink without offending her, "With all due respect-"

Holding her hand she silenced him, knowing what he was going to say, she explained, "There's a time and a place for everything, but I've drastically cut down on alcohol consumption. I mainly just have a drink or two at social gatherings and celebrations now."

"Trying life on the wagon, huh?" Butch questioned, looking amused by the thought as he poured himself another drink.

"I'm trying a cleaner life." Bird explained, "I can't do what Falcone expects of me if I'm intoxicated –tried it once and it didn't end pretty."

"A cleaner life?" Oswald questioned, watching her to see if there was any sign of bluff in what she was saying. He'd heard her swear off drinking and drugs several times in the past, only for her to be three sheets to the wind that same night.

"That's right." Bird agreed, "I hardly even drink anymore."

"And the pills?" Butch blatantly asked what Oswald had been itching too –but hadn't from fear of making her mad.

Looking between them she sighed, "I'm pretty much clean, okay? But I'm not perfect."

Drinking down the last of his recently refilled glass, Butch saw a few of the men bringing in more cases of liquor bottles and he stood up offering, "I'll show you where those go." As he motioned to the storage room back behind the bar and led them away.

"Bird." Oswald managed a smile as he sat down on one of the stools and watched her as she stood behind the bar.  
Thinking back to all of the time they'd spend both working under Fish in the club, it brought back memories. That was nearly how they'd end up every right.

Her back behind the bar, making sure everything was stocked and ready to go for the next day and he'd sit at the bar and watch her. Normally looking over the books for the night and making sure everything was in order. With a small smile he thought out loud, "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

"Yeah." She smiled, as she walked around the bar to sit by him, Bird gave one of the small umbrella topped lights a flick and commented, "The umbrellas are a nice touch."

As she took a seat next to him, she admitted, "I came to see you, see how things were working out here with Butch –but I also need your help with something."

"My help?" He asked, surprised. Normally Bird wasn't one to ask for help with anything at all, but here being there –even if she wanted a favor, was a step up from the cold shoulder she'd been aiming in hi direction for over a month.

"Yes." She nodded looking around to make sure they were alone as she began to explain, "When Liza was working as Falcone's housekeeper. She told me that she came across this folder –a file is more like it and she was going to make copies of the contents for me, but…" Clearing her throat she sadly reminded him, "She didn't live long enough and I need that folder."

"What is the file concerning?" Oswald asked.

"Me." Bird admitted, eyeing the glasses left on the bar and wishing she'd had a few more drinks. "Liza said it was a bunch of information on me, and I need to see what's in it before I can figure out why he has it."

Oswald's face contorted with confusion as he stared back at her, he'd never seen him with a file on Bird –nor had he heard anything about him keeping tabs on her.

"I would love to help you, but it seems as though you're the one spending more time in Falcon's mansion than I am." He pointed out.

"Yes, but the old man is still suspicious of me. Plus, when I'm at his house, I've normally got Victor at my side and I can't very well let him see me rooting around the house searching for something. He's become kind of a friend, but he's loyal to Falcone." Bird explained, thinking back to all of the times she'd heard Falcone talk down about Oswald, she carefully added, "He trusts you Oswald… you're the last person he views as a threat. You could set up a meeting with him to discuss business and when you're left alone see if you can find and make copies of the files."

"I would be endangering my own life." Oswald said, knowing that while he was in current good standings with the Don, one little slip up and he could very well be killed.

"Oswald!" She complained, "Look at all the times you've nearly gotten us both killed, everything that you've asked of me and all I need you to do is this one little thing."

"It's not a little thing." He shook his head. "Don Falcone would sooner kill me than hear my explanation if he were to find me making copies of any of his files."

Laying a hand on his arm she pleaded, "You are the only person I trust to do this."

Looking down to where her hand was on his sleeve, he swallowed hard and wanted nothing more than to agree to it. To do whatever she needed his help with, no matter the personal risk –but his sense of self-preservation wouldn't let him.

"I may have a solution, if you're willing." Oswald asked, his eyes looking alert and alive as he played through the plan in his head before he let her in on it. "I will set up a meeting with Don Falcone, and do my very best to find the file he has on you… but, removing it from the mansion or making copies is just too big a risk."

Seeing he had her attention he offered, "However; I could tuck it away someplace in the mansion and you could retrieve it at a later date." Seeing she was in agreement he offered, "I'll call Falcone tomorrow."

"Thank you, Oswald." She gratefully said, giving his arm a squeeze and returning the smile he'd given her.

* * *

 **A/N - So, at least Bird isn't angry with Oswald anymore, right? :P She and Jim are back to not getting along though. lol  
Thank you all so much for reading. Hope you liked the chapter. Still can't believe I'm closing in on the end of season 1! **

**Thanks to Jisselle In Wonderland, Saskia D. Fox, SwingingOnAStar, Melody Jane and Miss E Charlotte for reviewing chapter 41. :)**

 **You ca always find me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent).**


	43. Capsized

**XLIII**

" _I know you'll think this is crazy, but all I want to do is hold you, and I think that if you'll let me do that just for a few seconds, I can walk away, and never speak to you again."_ _― David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars_

* * *

"What?" Bird asked, as Harvey turned to face her on the sidewalk with raised eyebrows and an expectant expression on his face.

"It was perfect." He stated.

"It was not perfect… I hated the downstairs bathroom." She asserted.

They both politely smiled and waved to the real-estate agent who'd shown them three different houses that day, as she drove off and promised to come up with a list of more properties that had what they were looking for.

"And I don't care much for her either." Bird admitted, "Why does it matter to her if we'd planned converting spare bedrooms to office space or…" Making air quotations in the air with her fingers she repeated, "Plan on extending our family."

Harvey broke out in a laugh at the look on her face and said, "Because she's trying to help us find the perfect place –this is a long-term investment, we're buying a house together."

"Yeah, but come on Harvey… we haven't even talked about kids or anything ourselves, I certainly don't feel much like having that conversation with a stranger in the room." She continued to complain, almost seeming to grow frantic.

"Hey, hey." He breathed, rubbing his hands up and down her arms to calm her down as he said, "We don't have to decide anything right now and you don't like the house –so it's already forgotten. All we need to worry about at this moment in time is that if we don't decide on somewhere before my lease is up we're both going to be living out of your apartment –your very small and crowded apartment."

"I know." Bird breathed, taking a few breaths and trying to calm herself down, "Can we just walk for a minute, I need some air."

Nodding, he took her hand in his own and they started down the sidewalk away from the house they'd been walking through with the agent just moments ago.

"Who knew trying to find a place to live was such a headache." She breathed, rubbing her forehead with her free hand.

"Are you serious?" Harvey laughed, "Trying to get my apartment was a nightmare. All of the pre-approvals I had to go through for the building and I lived out of a hotel for nearly two months –they kept pushing back my move in date."

"Mine was easy." Bird remembered, "They'd just renovated the apartment itself because there was a double homicide that happened there. I was able to move right in without having to pay a deposit up front… no one wanted the place so my rent is also a lot cheaper compared to the other units. Which sounds silly coming from me, but I moved out as soon as I turned eighteen and the only money I had was from working at Fish's club."

She came to a stop when there was a tug on her hand, and she looked back to see Harvey had stopped walking a few steps behind her.

"There was a double murder that happened –in your apartment?" He asked.

"Yeah." She nodded, "A few months before I moved in. There's actually an indentation in the stone mantle of my fire place from where a bullet grazed it."

He watched her, unsure of how to feel about the newly learned information, he never was in times like this –a part of him was both glad and impressed that she didn't scare easily and didn't let the bad things that could happen stop her from living and another part of him felt uneasy about how indifferent she could be to things that would shock others.

"What?" She questioned.

"Nothing." He smiled, shaking his head back and forth before he leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips and they resumed their walking.

"You've been quiet." He finally said, his voice as soft as the light breeze blowing through the trees around them, before quickly adding, "I'm not pushing… just an observation."

"Uh-huh." She breathed, giving him a knowing look before smiling and saying, "I've just got a lot on my mind, I went to Wayne Manor before we met with the real-estate agent this morning and found out that one of Alfred's old war buddies, Reggie is staying there."

"Do you not like him?" Harvey questioned wondering why that would have been bothering her.

"It's not that, he seems nice enough I guess." She shrugged, "It's just that it's strange. You see in all of the years Alfred has worked for my family, I've never seen any of his friends. He's never brought anyone by the house –not even a date or anything. Then from what Bruce told me, just a few nights ago Reggie showed up in the middle of a rainstorm."

"And Alfred just invited him to stay there?" Harvey questioned.

"No, Bruce did." She admitted with a small smile at how nice and polite her little brother was, he truly was their father's son; always willing to help someone in need.

They walked for a little while longer, talking and just enjoying each others company before he checked the time and groaned, "I need to go the office and finish prepping for the trial tomorrow."

"Okay." She smiled as he leaned down to kiss her, before pulling back and making sure, "We're still on for tomorrow night?"

"Of course." Bird agreed, starting to lean up and claim his lips again before he left, but her gaze fell past him and she gasped, "Harvey!"

"What?" He exclaimed, rather startled as he quickly turned around to see what had seemingly spooked her, but he didn't see anything.

"Look at it!" She said, pointing across the street to an old, three story, standalone brownstone house.

"What about it?" He questioned, as he observed the run down state the house was in, with it's overgrown yard and damaged roof.

"It's perfect." Bird said, her grip tightening on his hand as she pulled him across the street so they could get a better look.

"Perfect for who?" He complained, motioning to it as he said, "I don't think there is a single intact window."

"Windows can be replaced." She pointed out, smiling as she looked it over and ran her fingers along the cold, decorative, black wrought iron fence out in front of the house. "It's got character… the other places we've looked at were all almost identical, but this one is so different."

"Starling…" He sighed, shaking his head, "It doesn't look like anyone has even touched the place in years." Thinking back to what she'd said about there having been a murder in her apartment before she moved in, he asked, "What is it about you moving into places where someone's been killed."

"We don't know that –that's what happened here."

"Just look at it; for all we know there's a body in there right now."

"Harvey!" She laughed, hitting his arm as she beamed a smile in his direction, "I know it looks a little rough right now-"

"Understatement." He cut her off.

With a sigh she continued, "It will just take a little fixing up is all."

"A lot of fixing up." He continued to argue, thinking that it would probably be cheaper to have a new house built than try to right all of the wrongs with the one they were looking at.

Turning to face her, he was getting ready to tell her that there was no way they were getting that house –or more so what was left of it. But as he saw her watching the house and yard with an excited look in her eyes, like she was already seeing the finished product instead of the dilapidated current state –he saw how much she really loved the house already.

"Your heart is already into it, isn't it?" Even though he sighed heavily as he spoke, there was a smile forming on his lips.  
She'd been able to find flaws in every single house they'd look at so far, and after a week of nothing but hearing her say no and going though two different real-estate agents –he was really beginning to think she was against the idea of them buying a place together.  
When apparently, it had truly been that she didn't care for any of the houses they'd been shown.

"My heart and my mind." Bird admitted, "I love it!" Leaning against his side she added, "And I love you… and this house is it. I can just feel it, you know? I think we can turn this house into a home; into our home."

Staring at her for a few moments, he finally caved and pulled his cellphone from his pocket and saved the number off the 'for sale' sign out front, as he said, "We'll call about it soon –but lets find out how much work it's really going to need before you get your heart too set on the place."

When he leaned down to kiss her, she pulled back slightly, letting her lips just barely brush over his as she argued, "Too late."

 **~(The next night)~**

"What are you doing?" Bird asked as she spotted her brother coming up from the wine cellar at Wayne Manor with a dusty glass bottle in his hand.

"Oh, good evening, Starling." Bruce greeted his older sister with a smile before holding up the bottle and explaining, "I was getting this for Alfred and Reggie, I thought it might be a nice gesture."

His eyebrows slightly knotted as he questioned, "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd drop by to see how things were going here." She admitted, before adding, "I also wanted to borrow a pair of mom's earrings." Glancing down, she looked back to her brother as she questioned, "That's okay, right?"

"Yes." He answered with a nod before seeing how she was dressed up, he guessed, "You're seeing Harvey tonight?"

"Yeah." She nodded walking beside him towards the kitchen as she continued, "We've got reservations at a new restaurant that recently opened."

Bruce looked to his older sister with a smile; in the times he'd met Harvey Dent he'd grown to like him more and more –he seemed like an honest, good man and most of all he hadn't ever seen Bird smile the way she did when she talked about him.  
He made her happy and Bruce hoped that perhaps maybe even helped keep her on track.

As the siblings walked into the kitchen, they found Alfred and Reggie sitting across from one another at the old wooden table –the pair immediately stopped talking when they walked in.

Bird looked between them with a raised eyebrow wondering what they were talking about and Bruce smiled as he proudly displayed the bottle and said, "I picked something out from the cellar. I hope that's okay."

"Well…" Alfred breathed, looking to Reggie and thinking about the drinking problem his friend had developed, "That's extremely kind of you, Master Bruce, but I don't think that we'll be drinking this evening."

"Why not?" Bird asked with a curious expression on her face as she retrieved glasses from the cabinet and set them down on the table.

"I'm sure it's perfectly fine to have a glass of wine occasionally, Alfred." Bruce said, scooting the bottle closer to him on the table and stating, "I picked an old one; seems a shame to let them gather dust down there."

Turning the bottle towards him so he could read the dust covered label, Reggie read, "Domaine de la Romanee-Conti."

Picking the wine bottle up, Alfred nodded, "It's a rather nice burgundy, actually, it's a 1966."

Walking over to the refrigerator, Bird smiled and glanced over her shoulder as she commented, "One of dad's favorites."

"Really?" Bruce asked with a smile. He'd spend close to a half an hour in the cellar looking through most of the bottles, he didn't know anything about wine or alcohol in general and so by the end, he'd just crossed his fingers and hoped he'd picked an acceptable bottle to offer up to Alfred and his friend.  
In some ways it made him feel closer to his father now, knowing out of the large selection of bottles he'd found that he'd managed to pick one of his favorites.

Seeing the hopeful smile on his face and knowing that Bruce was trying his best to be hospitable and polite, Alfred glanced back down to the bottle in his hand and sighed, 'Why not, eh? Take a pew."

Sitting down in the empty chair that Alfred had nodded to, Bruce's smile grew when Reggie said, "That's very kind of you."

"Cheers, mate." Alfred said as he opened the wine and returned to the table, giving a laugh when he saw Bird pour grape juice into a wine glass and set it down in front of her brother before picking up one of the glasses of wine and joining them at the table.

Bruce looked to the grape juice in front of him and then over to his sister with a smile, even if it seemed silly to be drinking grape juice from a wine glass, it did make him feel more like he fit in amongst the adults at the table with him.

"Thank you." He politely said, as he took a drink of the juice she'd given him.

With a smile and a nod, Bird fondly remembered, "That's the same thing dad used to do for me when I was a kid. I'd find him in here drinking alone at night, he'd put juice in a wine glass for me and let me sit up with him for a while."

Bruce's smile grew and Bird looked down into her glass and swished the wine and watched as the deep red liquid climbed the sides as she remembered back to those nights.  
The times before she'd grown into a teenager and got a taste for wine, so much so that eventually her parents had locked up the cellar to prevent her from pilfering the bottles, a lock that stayed on the door until months after she'd moved out on her own.

"Now…" Alfred said, sitting down and pouring some wine into his own glass he explained, "The idea, of course, is to let it breath for at least an hour."  
He'd barely finished his sentence when Reggie slurped down the wine from his glass and set it down on the table as he commented, "Ah, delicious."

The table erupted into laughter as Alfred sighed, "Or not…"

The next hour was spent with Reggie and Alfred reminiscing of their years spent serving together in the British Special Air Force, they each fondly told stories of the times they'd shared; the good times that somehow gave them strength to get through the bad.

The moments of light in the darkness.

"So, he eventually opened his backpack and he found the bloody snake." Reggie loudly said with a laugh as the effects of the second bottle of wine that had been opened started to set in. Thinking back to when they'd hidden the snake in Alfred's backpack, Reggie continued, "We'd been waiting for him to find it all night… then he didn't even flinch!"

"What did you do?" Bruce laughed, looking to Alfred.  
"Oh, you know, I chopped it's head off and we ate the bloody thing!" Alfred replied, laughing as he poured more wine into his own glass.

Having long since switched to grape juice over wine she wouldn't show up buzzed for her date that night, Bird took a drink and asked with a wrinkled nose, "What does snake taste like?"

Reggie laughed and Alfred said, "A bit like, um, fast food." With a laugh of his own he recalled, "It was horrible."

"It was horrible." Reggie agreed, "It was bloody disgusting."

"So, Mr. Payne, you were in the Air Force?" Bruce questioned.

"Special Air Service; S.A.S. The best soldiers in the world, if I'm being honest." Reggie answered, reaching for the wine bottle as he spoke.

"A lot of covert missions?" Bird questioned.

Turning to look at her Reggie nodded, "That's right; before a conflict they'd drop us behind enemy lines. We were quiet, precise and deadly. Never lost a man and always completed our missions." His gaze went to Alfred when he added, "Except that once, I guess."

"What happened?" She asked, looking to Reggie who stared back at her, picking up on the look in her eyes.  
The haunted look of someone who'd seen more than they should; a look he'd seen in many soldier's eyes –the eyes of warriors."

"There was a sandstorm-" He started to say, but Alfred cut him off.  
"Yeah, well, that's enough of the old war stories, eh, Reg?"

"A sandstorm?" Bruce pushed, curious to know of the story as well. He was learning so much about Alfred's life before he came to work for his family.

"We all got separated, two of us were captured." Reggie continued to tell the story despite Alfred's protests.

Seeing the look on Alfred's face, Bruce quietly guessed, "You?"  
In response Alfred's gaze fell to the table and he didn't give a verbal answer.

"He fought twelve of them off before they cut him down." Reggie said, looking to his old friend and asking, "Didn't you, Alf?"

"I'm here now, aren't I?" He said, managing a smile through the painful memories as he looked to Bruce and assured him, "That's all that matters."

Thunder crashed from the storm starting up outside and Bird cleared her throat, easily able to see the wrong turn the conversation had taken and stated, "Well, it's getting pretty late."

"Yes." Alfred agreed, "I have to say it's been absolutely lovely, but now I'd like to tidy up before I go to bed."

"Tidy up?" Reggie scoffed, "Mr. yes sir, no sir. Mr. Queensberry rules and discipline-"

"Thank you, that's enough." Alfred snapped, silencing his friend's comments.

Standing up and caught off guard by Reggie's antics, Bruce stammered, "Alfred's right… it's time for bed."

"Indeed it is." Bird agreed, standing up and starting for her brother, "Time for you to get ready for bed and I need to get going for my date." Looking between Reggie and Alfred she said, "Have a goodnight."

"Goodnight." Alfred said back to them, giving the siblings a smile as he followed them to the doorway.

"Goodnight." Bruce called over his shoulder as his sister led him away.

"Sleep well son." Alfred called after him.

Once they were out in the hallway, they both came to a stop and looked at each other.

"I thought you were going to bed." Bird whispered, with raised eyebrows.  
"And I thought you were leaving." Bruce replied with a matching expression.

They continued to stare at each other with the realization that they'd both been planning on eavesdropping rather than scurrying off to where they needed to be at that hour.

"Why are you hiding what you really are from them?" Reggie asked, looking to Alfred as he finished off the last of his glass of wine.

"This is who I am, Reg. This is my life now." Alfred argued, motioning around the kitchen as he gathered the two empty wine bottles from the table.

"You're life?" He scoffed, "Spending your days cooking and cleaning and teaching the young one to box in the evening? Pausing for a moment Reggie commented, "The older one; the girl –she's got a way about her… did you teach her to fight too?"

"That's quite enough." Alfred stated, but barely got his words out before his friend spoke loudly over him, "You're a war-dog, Alfie. You're a cold blooded, lethal war-dog. It's just what you are."

Choosing to not fight with him, Alfred spoke with a somber tone, "I gathered up some fresh clothes for you, Reg. They're folded and put on your bed and I've taken the liberty of packing a lunch for you tomorrow. It's been really nice to see you, Reggie."

"I see them at night." Reggie stated, "When I'm alone. I see their faces; faces of the ones we've killed, do you?"

"I don't have to look for them, Reg. They find me." Alfred replied.

"Alright." Bird whispered, laying a hand on her brother's shoulder and leading him away from the doorway to the kitchen, she added, "I think that's enough eavesdropping for one night."

Once they were upstairs, Bird came to a stop just outside of the closed doors to the master bedroom and turned to face Bruce when she asked, "You okay?"

"Yes. I just…" He breathed, with a small shrug, "I guess I just never gave much thought to Alfred's life before he came to work for our family."  
He'd only ever known him as a butler –a friend of the family who'd became so much more, he'd became part of the family.

"From the sounds of it, he doesn't like to give much thought to it either." Bird empathized.

Thinking back to what had happened downstairs, Bruce softly said, "I don't understand why Reggie would keep bringing it up then-"

Reaching out and giving his arm a squeeze, Bird cut him off, "I wouldn't worry about it much. Reggie had too much to drink –that can bring out the worst in some people; either way, from the sounds of it he's going to be leaving tomorrow."

Bruce nodded, thinking that it might be for the best that Reggie would be leaving soon after what he'd seen that night.

"Get some sleep." She dismissed, "I'm going find the right earrings and then I'll be leaving and hopefully won't be too late to meet Harvey."

"Goodnight, Starling." Bruce said as he continued down the hallway towards his room.

"Night." She called after him.

Once he was gone, she opened the door and walked inside her parents room. She'd been in there a few times since their deaths for various reasons, but it seemed like every time she'd go back in the room felt colder.  
Even though it looked the same as before they died –the space started to feel less and less like it used to. The air felt empty, no longer laced with the scent of her mother's perfume.

Swallowing hard she looked around and thought to herself that she didn't care much for the room anymore. It felt out of place now, somehow seemed to no longer belong in the house –or maybe she herself no longer belonged there.

Quickly crossing the room, she opened her mother's jewelry box and found the pair of earrings she'd came after. As she started to put them on, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror and slowly sat down on the delicate, satin padded seat of the vanity. Her eyes stung with tears as memories flooded back of the many times she'd sat there for her mom to help her with her make-up and fix her hair when she was growing up.

Looking down to her shoes, she remembered sitting there when she was so young her feet wouldn't even reach the floor. She'd climb up onto the seat and start to make a mess of her mom's make-up and her own face, no matter how big of a mess she turned the vanity into she never got in trouble.

When she looked back up into the large, spotless mirror her reflection almost startled herself. Sometimes she still felt so much like an angry teenager that it surprised her to see how much she'd really grown up.

In a lot of ways the full weight of their loss hadn't hit her yet, for the past few years she'd barely seen them –so not having them around on a daily basis wasn't something new to her. But as she'd pull up to the house, she often still expected to see them when she'd go inside.  
Time was supposed to heal everything, that's what she'd been told, that as time went it would be easier to deal with –but she was finding the opposite to be true.

The more time that passed, the more she missed them and became more aware that they were truly gone and never coming back.  
It had a lot to do with how much she was growing up on her own since they'd died, things were happening now in her life that she wished she could shared with them; like her relationship with Harvey. They'd been together for going on a year now, her longest and most serious relationship and now they were going to be moving in with each other –a move that had her thinking about their future together and wondering what it would hold.

If everything went according to plan and she and Oswald succeeded in getting rid of the Dons, then he'd take over Gotham and she'd finally be free to do what she wanted and make a real life for herself –a life with the man she loved and while the thought excited her, it also left her saddened to think of all the events in her life that she'd never get to share with her parents.  
She didn't feel them around her the way people tried to tell her she would.

So many times she'd been told how even though they were no longer living, that they were still with her –only now she was sure that was something people just said to try and make others feel better. Along with the sentiment that they were in a better place; she possibly hated that one more.  
It made it sound like they'd left on some vacation far away from Gotham.

Shaking her head back and forth, she checked the time and saw how late the night had gotten. Standing up, she smoothed her dress out and adjusted the decorative hair pin she had placed to hold back some of her straightened hair when she heard a crash coming from downstairs.

Turning to leave the room, she paused and turned back picking up the bottle of her mother's perfume off the vanity and spraying a single spritz in the air in hopes that the next time she returned to the room, it would once again have the familiar scent in the air and possibly feel more like it used to.

Just as she reached the stairs, she was met by her brother who was now dressed in his pajamas. "Did you hear that crash?" He asked.

"Yeah." She nodded, starting to descend the stairs as she added, "Probably nothing to worry about, but I was going to check things out before I left."

The pair walked through the downstairs, until they wandered into their late father's office.

"Oh my god!" Bird yelled, as she saw Alfred laying on the floor, his white shirt soaked in blood from a deep knife wound.  
Darting across the room, she grabbed a folded up blanket along the way and dropped to her knees, using the blanket to apply pressure to the wound.

"Alfred!" Bruce yelled falling to the ground next to his sister, with tears already starting to run down his cheeks. He could see he was still breathing and his eyes were still open, but they couldn't focus –he seemed to just barely be clinging to life.

"Call 911!" Bird instructed, while she kept the pressure against the wound and pleaded for Alfred to hold on, that help was on the way.

In a frantic crawl over to the table where the phone was, Bruce pulled it onto the floor with him and picked up the receiver, somehow managing to dial the correct numbers with his trembling fingers.  
Once they answered he spoke in a broken and shaky voice, "This is Bruce Wayne, I need immediate help sent to Wayne Manor –my friend has been stabbed!"

 **~()~**

Bird's breathing was uneven and rushed as she gripped into the sides of the sink in the hospital bathroom.

The hospital staff had rushed Alfred into emergency surgery, and even though everyone there was trying their hardest to be positive. Bird had seen people die from less severe wounds and the reality of what was happening was nothing short of utterly terrifying.

It wasn't just the possibility of losing someone she loved, someone she considered to be family –it was also what losing Alfred would mean. The aftermath of not only being another family member down, but more so the fact that she'd become her brother's guardian.

How the hell was she supposed to take care of him? The idea of being responsible for another human life left her paralyzed. Some days she did good to take care of herself.

"Starling?" She could hear her brother calling as he knocked on the door.

Looking over her shoulder to the closed door, she swallowed hard and managed to find her voice, "I'll be out in a minute."

Turning her attention back to her reflection in the mirror, her eyes filled with tears and she started to raise her hand to brush her hair out of her face, but stopped when she realized she still had Alfred's blood on her hands from where she'd tried her best to slow the bleeding until help arrived.

Reaching for the hot water dial, she turned the water on as high powered and as hot as she could get it, before she started to vigorously scrub the blood off –using nearly a palm full of soap.

She pinned her eyes shut and fought to take in a breath as her brother knocked on the door again.

 _This wasn't happening._

 _This couldn't be happening to her_.

 _ **Alfred couldn't die.**_

Her thoughts swirled around, bouncing and echoing in her head so loud that she'd have cut her own her ears off for just a moment of silence; traded her soul to find just a bit of peace and be able to breathe again.

"Starling!"

Her brother's distressed cries came through the door, along with the sound of his incessant knocking.

"Just give me a damn minute!" Bird screamed back at him.

The knocking stopped and tears started to run down her cheeks, as she continued to scrub away at her skin even though there wasn't any blood left on her flesh.

Water droplets dripped from her hands, as she grabbed back onto the sides of the sink and braced against it to stay standing.

She couldn't do this; there was no way she could go out there and see her brother. She wasn't equipped for this.

In those seconds as she stared back at her reflection in the mirror, she realized just how much she missed her mother. The weight of the loss crushed down on her chest.  
Her mother was always good at comforting people, she was always so naturally warm and caring.

That was who her brother needed right now, he needed his mom back, needed someone who was able to take care of him –someone who knew just what to say in the worst of times.

Anyone but her, she thought, Bruce would be better off with anyone but her.

Pulling in a gasping breath, Bird was faced with the petrifying reality she was all he had.  
It didn't matter if she was ready to step up and be the sister she should have always been to him, or not.

Sooner or later she was going to have to open that door and face him, knowing that he'd be looking to her for answers and strength.

It wasn't until after she'd shut the water off and started to dry her hands on the rough paper towel that she'd even realized how red and sore her skin was from the excessive scrubbing in the high tempered water.

Wincing in pain, she finished drying them and then tossed the crumple paper into the trashcan. Slowly, she inched closer to the door, trying to delay the inevitable for as long as possible.

Bird pulled in one last breath, before she clicked the lock open and turned the handle.

"Bruce, I…" Her voice trailed off when she realized her brother wasn't waiting outside of the door any longer.

She checked down the opposite end of the hallway before returning to the waiting room they'd spoken to the doctor in earlier, where she saw him sitting in a small couch under the television in the far corner of the room.

Slowing to a stop, she watched as he sat there with his head resting in his hands. It was closing in on a year since they'd lost their parents, and even though he'd grown up so much in that time –she was struck by just how small he looked sitting there in the room by himself.

"Bruce?" She softly said as she walked closer and sat down in a chair across from him.

Slowly, he raised his head and looked at her with his painfully red-rimmed and raw eyes.

"You yelled at me." He pointed out.

And just like she'd feared, he looked at her wanting answers for everything that was happening.  
Silently wanting to know why the world had seemed to turn into such a dark place over the past year.

"I'm sorry." Bird swallowed as she spoke, "I didn't mean to. I just…" Giving a weak shrug and blinking away tears of her own she admitted, "I don't know what the hell I'm doing here, Bruce. I don't know what to say or do to make you feel any better. I'm sorry."

"No…" He managed to choke out, shaking his head back and forth, "I'm sorry, this is my fault. This is all my fault, I invited Reggie to stay there. If I hadn't insisted he stay-"

"Stop it." Bird said, her words coming out much harsher than she'd mean for them too and they caught Bruce off gaurd.

Standing up, she walked over and sat down beside him, "You aren't going to do that, okay? You're not going to internalize all of this, because that guilt is going to eat you alive. This isn't your fault, do you understand me?"

"He was only there because-"

"Reggie was there because he's an old friend of Alfred's. You had no reason not to trust him." Bird stated.

When she saw Bruce pull in a breath and start to open his mouth, she thought he was going to argue with her, but instead he weakly asked himself out loud, "Why did I invite him to stay?"

Even though he was mainly voicing the thoughts in his head and asking himself why he'd done something that now seemed so reckless, it was Bird who gave him the answer.

"Because you are the person our parents raised you to be."

When he looked back to his older sister, Bird explained, "They taught you to be kind and show compassion to everyone you meet. Reggie showed up at the house as an old friend of Alfred's who was down on his luck. You did exactly what mom and dad would have done in that situation."

There was a pause before Bruce pointed out, "You wouldn't have invited a stranger to stay there."

"That's because I'm neither kind nor compassionate." Bird tried to joke and lighten the mood.

"Maybe I should be more like you then." He mumbled under his breath and Bird stared at him with a helpless expression on her face.

"You are perfect just the way you are." She argued with him, thinking the last thing her brother needed was to be more like her.

"But I'm not." He argued, holding onto his increasingly heavy head as he spoke. Despite what Bird was telling him, he knew this was his fault and whether Alfred survived or not –he'd never be able to let this go.

He couldn't understand why these things kept happening to him and why he was so weak. He'd stood there and watched his parents be killed right in front of him and then nearly a year later he'd invited someone dangerous into his home and as a result Alfred might not live through the night.

"You should eat something." Bird somehow managed to say through her now erratic breathing, as her own fears started to root deeper in her own head.  
Helpless wasn't a feeling she handled well.

"I'm not hungry." Bruce argued.

"Then you should drink something… maybe the vending machine has juice or-"

"I'm not thirsty." He cut her off, now trying to focus on what comes next, he asked, "What happens if… what happens if Alfred doesn't make it?"

"He's going to." She stated, as if she used enough power in her voice she could will it to be.

"But if he doesn't?" Bruce pushed.

His entire world had been turned on end again and the uncertainty of tomorrow was ripping him apart from the inside out.  
Maybe, just maybe if he had some sort of plan –an inclining of what was to come, then he could finally breathe again.

"Then I become your legal guardian." Bird admitted, her mouth hanging open as she pulled in a rattling breath.

"You'll move back into Wayne Manor then?" He asked.

When Bird refused to look him in the eyes, he asked, "Starling?"

"Look, I'm not good at this okay? Sugarcoating things isn't my strong suit, so you need to understand that when you ask me something you might not like the answer and right now-"

"I want the truth." He cut her off, his voice stronger than it was just moments before, as a new surge of panic started to hit him.

"The truth is… that if something happens to Alfred –we have to leave Gotham." Bird admitted.

"Why?" He demanded to know.

"Because of me." Bird answered, her eyes finally meeting his as she turned in the seat some and faced him, "Because I'm selfish and I do the things I want to do, without stopping to think about how the blow-back is going to affect anyone around me."

"What are you talking about?" He choked out, his eyes widening and starting to fill with tears again as he stammered, "What did you do?"

Seeing her hesitation in answering him, Bruce quickly added, "Don't lie to me."

"This isn't the time for a conversation like this." Bird argued with him.

"Selina told me that people are afraid of you on the streets." Bruce admitted to her, "That you're associated with The Falcone Crime family-"

"Then Selina has a big mouth." Bird cut him off, before asking, "Did she just offer this information up or did you ask her about me?"

"I asked." He owned up to his actions, "But only because you don't talk to me -not about that at least. You are always honest with me –except when it comes to your life. I just want to understand-"

"The only thing you need to know right now is that I will do what I have to –to keep you safe."

Before he could say anything else, her phone rang from her pocket and when she saw it was Harvey calling, she gave her brother a sympathetic look and explained, "It's Harvey, he must think I stood him up for our date. I'll be right back."

 **~()~**

It was several minutes later that Bird returned to the waiting room and found her brother asleep on the small couch he'd been sitting on.

In truth she was happy he was asleep for many reasons. It had been a long and trying day, he was completely exhausted and needed his rest. But she was also happy for selfish reasons in that he wouldn't be questioning her anymore over parts of her life that she wasn't willing to discuss with him.

She pulled her jacket off as she walked over to him and draped it over him so he wouldn't get cold. There was a somber half smile on her lips as she gently smoothed down the side of his hair that was sticking out.

Blood or not, he was her brother and she meant what she'd told him. She'd do whatever she needed to –to keep him safe.

It was different knowing he was under Alfred's care, she knew he was protected and safe, and she could about her own business. But if he wasn't going to survive this ordeal, then everything in her world was going to change; even more so then when she lost her parents.

She'd just reached up to turn the television off that was mounted on the wall and turned back around when the double doors at the end of the hallway opened and she saw Jim rushing in.

As he got closer, he opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but Bird put a finger to his lips and shushed him before he could. She nodded to where Bruce was sleeping so he'd understand.

"What's going on?" Jim asked when Bird walked over to him, "I heard there'd been a call from Wayne Manor."

"It's Alfred." She quietly said, glancing towards the other set of doors that they staff had came through to give any updates on the surgery and his progress, "He, uh, he was stabbed… lost a lot of blood, they think he's probably got some internal damage, but they don't know how severe."

Jim's eyebrows knotted as he looked past her to where Bruce was sleeping and questioned, "Is Bruce okay?"

"As okay as anyone can be who might just lose someone else they love, Jim." She flatly stated the no-nonsense answer.

He blew out a small sigh, but didn't let her snappy tone get to him in understanding of all she'd been through that night.

"You were at the house?" He asked.

"Yeah." Bird nodded.

"Did you see the attacker?" Jim questioned.

"I only came downstairs when I heard some crashing noises and I found Alfred bleeding on the floor." Bird answered, neglecting to tell him that she knew exactly who'd hurt her family's butler.

It was a move made out of respect for Alfred, knowing that if he lived through this, he'd want to deal with Reggie with himself.  
And if he didn't, then she'd hunt Reggie down herself and make him pay for what he'd done.  
Either way, involving the GCPD wouldn't do anyone any favors.

"Someone broke in, I think." She shrugged, furthering the lie. "Probably trying to rob us and Alfred intervened."

Jim's forehead lined as he stared at her, feeling like she wasn't telling him everything. He knew Alfred had fought off trained assassins when they'd came to Wayne Manor after Selina Kyle, the idea that an everyday home intruder could have bested him didn't sit well.

"Bird, if you know who did this…" He let his voice trail off and waited expectantly on an answer.

"Can we not do this right now?" She huffed, "Alfred isn't just the butler, he's family, okay? And it's very late and I've had a really long day."

Nodding back to where her brother was still soundly sleeping, Bird continued, "And I'm not good at this part. The comforting and making things better. I don't know what the hell I'm doing. He keeps looking to me for answers, because if we lose Alfred then I'm all he's got and this is completely uncharted territory for me."

Finally she pulled in a rattling breath as her rambling came to a stop and she stared at him with her bloodshot eyes a little wide. "I can't do this." She whispered, her vision starting to blur from tears, "How the hell am I supposed to take care of another human being. My parents wouldn't even let me have a dog when I was a kid because they said I wasn't responsible enough. And they were right and now I'm staring down the possibility of being someone else's guardian. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know." Jim sympathized, clearing his throat before adding, "But you'll figure it out. You'll have to… for him." He nodded over to the corner couch as he spoke.

Sitting down in the chair closest to her, Bird stared blankly ahead of her, the paralyzing fear of her world shifting was setting in again.

When she felt him sit down in the chair next to her, Bird said, "I don't know anything else about what happened. You can leave." She paused just long enough mentally recall what he'd said to her, before she bitterly added, "After all, Bruce is asleep and I'm no better than the lowlife criminals I surround myself with."

His eyes closed at her words and the pang of guilt he felt when she repeated back what he'd said to her the prior week. He'd been angry with her at the time, for a number of reasons and lashed out.

"Look, when I said that to you-"

"Don't." Bird scoffed, "If you're going to be an outright dick to me, then at least own it. Even on days like this, Jim."

"You can go." She breathed, sliding down in the chair some and resting her head back against the wall. It was going to be an even longer night and she hoped to be able to steal a few hours of sleep, but it didn't seem likely.

"I think I'll stick around for a little while longer." Jim argued, before asking, "You want a coffee or something?"

She shook her head back and forth.

She wasn't about to say it out loud, but a part of her was glad he was staying for now. Maybe if her brother woke up, having Jim there would help some –maybe she just felt better not having to face him alone.

Several minutes of silence passed until Jim asked, "Have you thought about what you're going to do if they lose him?"

She was quiet for so long that he thought she was going to ignore him, but then Bird finally spoke again, "I've always hated that term, you know? When someone dies and you say you lost them, it sort of trivializes the entire thing. I mean, losing something, sounds like you can retrace your steps and find it, or put a call into lost and found and all is well again."

Jim looked over at her, silently nodding along with her words.

"It's all I've thought about." She admitted, "I've considered packing us up and fleeing Gotham, I mean I cannot be in organized crime and trying to raise and protect him. There are people out there who would hurt him to get to me and I won't let that happen. Boarding school even crossed my mind, because let's face it, he's probably better off somewhere far away from me. He'd hate me for it, but…" She gave a weak shrug and added, "I'm not equipped for this."

"You're more capable then you're giving yourself credit for." Jim stated, turning in his seat some to better face her, "All things considered, this probably doesn't mean much coming from me, but I've seen you at your most human with Bruce. He's your brother, you love him and I know you'd do anything to protect him. I seem to remember you running unarmed into a building of assassins to bring him home safe."

"Yeah." She feebly chuckled, looking over at him as she admitted, "Assassins I can handle, but the idea of being responsible for him…"

"You'll figure it out." Jim cut in, his eyes locking with hers as he explained, "A couple months ago you were sitting in my apartment, bleeding and needing stitches –giving me a million reasons why you couldn't get out of The Falcone Crime Family."

"And, now?" He continued, "You're talking about packing your bags and getting you both out of here and away from organized crime. If it comes down to you being Bruce's guardian, then you will figure everything out."

"You really believe that?" She whispered, with tears starting to well back up in her brown eyes.

"Yes." He answered with conviction in his tone, and before he was even actively processing what was happening, his gaze dropped to her lips.

And despite them both agreeing to pretend like the kiss had never happened, his mind went right back to being in the stairwell of that same hospital alone with her.  
To the silky feeling of her brunette hair between her fingers, the way it felt when their mouths collided, her taste and how everything in that moment had left his heart sprinting in his chest like he'd ran a marathon.

Bird's breath hitched in her throat at realizing how close his face was to her own now, how short the distance between them had gotten and the moment in the stairwell with him came alive in her mind.

The taste of danger and the forbidden feeling of doing something she knew was wrong.

That day she'd been gotten carried away in the moment, told herself that her head wasn't in the right place and it was a mistake.  
A mistake that she found herself thinking about more often than she should.

A mistake they'd both sworn wouldn't happen again.

History might have just repeated if Bird hadn't caught sight of the doors opening at the end of the hallway and who was walking through them.

Scrambling out of her seat, she nearly tripped over her own feet in the rush and she quickly walked away without looking back to Jim.

He turned around in his seat just in time to see Harvey Dent wrap Bird in his arms and hold her tightly against him, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as he did.

Jim shook his head and looked down.  
Did he really almost kiss her again?  
As if the first time hadn't caused them both enough grief and guilt; at least on his part.

He'd find himself thinking about the kiss they'd shared and living in the memory far more often than he'd care to admit, and then be twisted up with guilt whenever he'd look at Lee after it.

Standing up, he looked back over to where Bruce was sleeping and then down the main hallway where Bird was still wrapped in Harvey's embrace.

He didn't like it.  
He knew that on at least one occasion Harvey had left a bruise on Bird and though he knew there were extenuating circumstances that day, it still bothered him.

Maybe it was that despite knowing her faults and the criminals she surrounded herself with and despite his better judgment, he did consider her a friend and had grown to care about her.  
Even though he didn't want to admit it to himself, maybe it was even deeper then that.

Either way, it was clear he wasn't needed there anymore. Bruce was asleep and Harvey had shown up for Bird.

He'd check back in the morning when Bruce would be awake and they'd hopefully have good news on Alfred's condition, but for now there wasn't anything he could do.

Pulling his eyes away from the couple, Jim quickly walked down a side hallway to leave, knowing that there wasn't a place there for him any longer.

* * *

 **A/N – Thank you all for reading. :)**

 **Shout-out to SwingingOnAStar for reviewing the last chapter!**


	44. Christmas Ham

**XLIV**

 _"There I was, cold, isolated and desperate for something I knew I couldn't have._  
 _A solution. A remedy. Anything._  
 _...I hated it. Alone and confused was the last place I wanted to be._  
 _Somehow I knew I deserved this." ― Brian Krans, A Constant Suicide_

* * *

"Alfred is doing better." Bird quietly said as she returned to her seat in the waiting room next to Harvey, she continued, "He's made it through the night so that's a really good sign… the doctor said there's still no guarantees, but he's is a fighter; through and through."

Reaching over Harvey ran a comforting hand up and down her back, while he rubbed his tired eyes with the other. After speaking to Bird the night before and learning how Alfred had been stabbed and that she was at the hospital with him; he'd rushed to be there with her.  
Once Alfred was out of surgery and as stable as they could hope for, he'd stayed with Bruce while Bird ran to get her brother a change of clothes since he was still in his pajamas.

"You really don't know who attacked him?" Harvey quietly asked and he could feel his girlfriend tense up beside him.

"Not a clue." Bird lied, giving a shrug, but she didn't miss the look of disbelief in his eyes.

"What?" She sighed, but didn't get much of an answer as he shook his head and avoided her eyes.

"Harvey?"

Taking in a deep breath, he held onto her hand with his own as he spoke, "I'm just trying to piece things together and something just doesn't sound right with your story."

"It was Reggie." Bird finally admitted to him, "This is all my fault." She breathed, leaning forward and resting her face in her hands.

"No it isn't." Harvey argued with her.

"It is! I told you I thought it was strange that this Reggie showed up out of nowhere, remember? I told you that."

"I remember, but-"

"I felt it, Harvey. I knew something was off with the situation, but he was polite and Bruce seemed to like him and it was nice for Alfred to see an old friend… but, I should have trusted my gut on this and because I didn't; Alfred was nearly killed." Bird whispered, rubbing her bloodshot eyes, "They're still not even sure if he's going to make it."

"It's been a really rough night… but none of this is your fault." He tried to soothe her, but it wasn't working.  
When she'd gone by Wayne Manor she'd went into her father's office to get a look around and started noticing things she'd hadn't before –like that along with several different things missing her brother's board of information of Wayne Enterprises corruption had been left bare.

Now, stealing little statues and gold plated pens she could understand, but seeing the other things that were stolen made it clear that the valuables were just a cover and probably a distraction away from what he was really there after.  
This was the precise reason she'd warned her brother to not make threats against the board of Wayne Enterprises; they were dealing with dangerous people and now when he found out, she knew Bruce would feel guilty.

"You have to tell the police." He instructed as he started to take his cellphone from his pocket, but Bird quickly snatched it away from him and argued, "No, I don't have to tell them anything."

"Starling-"

"We will deal this this -in the family." Bird cryptically argued with him, but he knew that mean they'd take matters into their own hands.  
That they were planning on handling the situation outside of the law and as an officer of the court, he had a moral and legal duty to report any knowledge of crimes.

"You know if you don't want to tell the cops, that I have to."

"No, you don't." Bird shook her head, "You wanted the truth and so that's what you got, but you can't tell anyone."

"You realize this puts me in a terrible situation, right?" Harvey complained, "Was this some kind of test? I don't like being put in these positions, Starling. I don't like any of it."

"If you can't handle the truth, then maybe you shouldn't ask me questions that you're not going to like the answer too." She gruffly whisper-yelled at him.

He blew out a sigh and leaned his head back against the wall. She'd done it on purpose, he thought, told him the truth about something and then demand he keep it a secret.  
As much as he'd liked to believe that she'd opened up to him out of trust, he couldn't help but feel like it was some sort of test.

Looking over to the chair her brother had just recently fell back asleep in, she watched him resting for a few minutes before, turning in her chair and looking to Harvey as she confided, "I don't think I want kids."

Turning his head to look back at her, he had a confused almost dumbstruck look on his face as he asked, "What…"

"Those real-estate agents kept asking us about the extra bedrooms in the houses we looked at and we both just avoided the question and I know we're nowhere near that point, but i just want you to know that when it comes to the whole kids thing… I'm leaning more towards no." She spoke in a fast tone, trying to get the words out as fast as possible.

When he continued to just stare at her she asked, "What? We both knew this conversation would come up eventually."

"Yes…" He agreed, "But what I don't understand is your track record for choosing the strangest times to have important conversations."

"I'm sorry." She breathed as she rubbed her forehead, "This whole thing has me so freaked out and last night after they took Alfred in for surgery, my brother kept asking me what was going to happen to him if Alfred died and I told him that it would be up to me to take care of him… and Harvey, I swear to god... he looked just as horrified by the idea as I was."  
Tears burnt at her eyes like a lit match and she tried to blink them away, "I told you I can't even keep plants alive… how could I ever be solely responsible for another human life-"

"Hey, hey… take a breath." He instructed, taking her hand in his and repeating, "First off you need to breathe." Seeing her calm down a bit, he managed a small smile as he added, "Secondly, your brother is an incredibly intelligent teenager and not a plant –he'll remind you to feed and water him."

The comment earned a small smile from her, but didn't ease her nerves over the situation at all.

"Also, there's a good chance Alfred is going to make it and…" His voice trailed off, taking in a ragged breath he continued, "And even if he doesn't, you're not alone to figure everything out… you've got me."

Leaning over he gently pressed a kiss to her lips and repeated, "You're not alone."

Sliding an arm around her, he held onto her as she rested her head on his shoulder and finally said, "It all just got me thinking about the future and I'm pretty sure I don't have a single maternal bone or instinct in my entire body, so I just thought I should tell you."

With a small laugh he said, "I said we didn't have to have that conversation now because I'm nowhere near ready for kids and I'm not so sure I want them either."

They sat in silence until she finally asked, "Why not?"

"Probably a lot of the same reasons you don't." He answered with a small shrug before his arm tightened around her and he admitted in a low whisper, "Terrified of turning into my father doesn't help either."

"You're not going to." She assured him. And as much as he wanted to believe her, the fact that he'd already hurt her a few times weighed heavily on his mind and heart alike.

"It's the weirdest thing." Bird finally said, looking back to where Bruce was asleep as she explained, "I see him and I know he's so strong, and I don't even mean for someone his age. I mean as any living, breathing thing. He's about as tough and as strong as they come, but he just looks so tiny sleeping there."

With an exasperated breath, she held her hands out in front of her as she added, "Even knowing how resilient he is, all I want to do is just wrap him in up in bubble wrap or something and protect him from anything and everything that could ever hurt him. I just want to keep him in a safety bubble."

"It's the damnedest thing..." Bid mumbled, in a state of disbelief.  
She'd always been protective over her younger brother, but since losing their parents the sense responsibility she felt for him just seemed to keep growing.

Cracking a smile, Harvey looked down and intertwined their fingers when he said, "I believe that's the maternal instinct you claim to be void of."

Letting out a small laugh, she laid her head against his shoulder and argued, "I think it's lack of sleep."

 **~(A few days later)~**

"It's okay Oswald, no one else is here." Bird said as she stepped to the side and let Oswald in the door of Wayne Manor she explained, "Now that Alfred is awake my brother doesn't want to leave his side, I'm lucky to drag him back here for a shower and change of clothes.

Walking inside the large, extravagant house, Oswald silently looked around; his eyes traveled over all the expensive antiques and collectables as she led him through the downstairs towards her father's office.

"Thank you for bringing this." She said with a smile as she took the large collapsible folder from him.

"You're welcome." He said, adjusting his suit and continuing to look around the room, his nose wrinkling with the scent of chemicals strong in the air, he added, "With everything you have going on, I didn't imagine you'd have the time to stop by Falcone's and retrieve it."

Seeing the expression on his face, Bird explained, "The cleaners were out here earlier this morning to get the blood off the floor."

With a nod, he sat down on the couch across from Bird while he continued to look all around the room. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like to grow up in a house like that, not when he'd shared a small apartment with his mother for his whole life.

When he looked back to her, he saw her hesitance to open the file and admitted, "I did have a look inside."

"Liza told me it's a lot of pictures and some newspaper articles about awards I won when I was younger." Bird whispered, looking up to him and questioning, "Is that true?"

"Yes and a lot more." Oswald nodded, "I didn't see anything like this on anyone else who works for Don Falcone and the way he had this one tucked away, it was clear he didn't want anyone seeing it."

Silently, Bird slowly opened it and started to remove papers and pictures, laying them out on the table as she went.

"It's not what I expected. I'd imagined the file to contain useful information on you or possibly even contents that could be held over you –for blackmail or to keep you from betraying him." Looking down to a picture of Bird from her high school graduation he shook his head and continued, "I don't see the point in any of this, but it appears he's been keeping tabs on you for quite some time."

"He's even got a background check on Harvey in here." Bird breathed, her eyebrows lowering as she glanced over the paper and laid it to the side.

"Another useless piece of information." Oswald mumbled under his breath. "None of this seems like anything a crime boss would keep for someone working under them."

"That's what I was afraid of." Bird admitted, looking to her best friend and saying, "Oswald, I need to tell you something."

He watched her intently, wondering what she had to tell him. The expression on her face was one of fear and dread, which left his stomach knotted.

"Before she made her move on Falcone, Fish told me that about twenty-one years ago Falcone had a child –and that the mother and baby were killed just weeks after the birth." Bird said, her eyes meeting his as she added, "I took the story at face value, I mean after all... Fish probably knew more about Falcone than any of us; but lately I've been thinking about a lot of things. Trying to understand why Falcone was so intent on keeping me alive and he told me that everything he's done was to make me stronger… why would he even care unless…"

"You think Don Falcone is your natural father?" Oswald exclaimed, getting up from his seat he looked at Bird with his eyes wide in excitement as he thought out loud, "That would be perfect. Just think-"

"Oswald!" She hissed, jumping to her own feet, "Can you stop thinking about the plan to take over Gotham for a single second and just think about what this means for me. I mean… if he really is my father than why would he have let me suffer all those years in orphanages? I… I was starved and beaten while he had so much money and power and then it opens up the question of who is my biological mother and what happened to her?"

"Of course, Bird. You're right." He nodded, holding a hand up in surrender, "This must be hard for you."

"I don't even know if it's true, Oswald. I could be completely wrong here, but… I don't know, it doesn't feel like I'm wrong." She confided, a pained look on her face as she looked at him.

Glancing back around the room, he questioned, "Bird, if you're correct in your assumptions; then do you think it was coincidence that you were adopted by the Waynes?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Only that, if this is true, if you really are Falcone's daughter then wouldn't it seem strange that out of all the children in orphanages and foster homes in and around Gotham, that you'd be the one they adopted?" He offered.

"You're saying you think they knew? Knew this whole time that the biggest crime boss in Gotham City could have been my father?"

"I don't know." Oswald said, walking over to her as he urged, "You need to find out if this is true, that could be information that we could use to our advantage…" His voice trailed off and he shook his head, "And most importantly, of course, it's something you need to know for own peace of mind."

"Thanks for bringing me the folder, but I need to be going back to the hospital soon." She sighed, placing a hand on his back and gently pushing him towards the doorway of the room and down the hallway.

"You will tell me?" He questioned as they reached the front door and she opened it for him.  
"When you have proof that he is or isn't your true father, you will tell me?"

"Yeah." Bird answered.

"Falcone can never know it was me who took that file." He reminded her before he left.

Returning to her father's office, Bird got back to work reviewing everything that was in the file when she soon heard approaching footsteps and looked up to see Jim walking into the room.

"What are you doing here?" She questioned, "I thought the police were done here… I already hired cleaners-"

"I saw Penguin leave minutes ago." Jim stated, "Do Bruce and Alfred know about the kind of people you're letting in here while they're gone?"

Her eyes narrowed in response and she repeated, "What are you doing here, Jim?"

"I just came from the hospital… Alfred and Bruce are both claiming that they don't know who stabbed him." Jim admitted, walking in farther and sitting down across from her as he added, "You were here that night –anything you'd like to tell me?"

"Not that I can think of." She shrugged, knowing very well that as much as she'd like to hunt Reggie down and kill him herself that this was Alfred's score to settle and she needed to respect that. "Plus, you already asked me this in the hospital the night it happened."

"Nothing at all?" Jim questioned, his eyes falling to the coffee table where Bird quickly gathered up the papers and photos and hid them back in the folder. "I know you're holding something back."

When Bird refused to say anything else to him on the matter, Jim added, "The way I see it… it's strange, isn't it? You're dating Harvey Dent and he gets jumped and roughed up pretty damn bad. Then one of the nights you're here visiting Alfred is nearly killed. People close to you just seem to keep getting hurt, don't they?" He watched her closely as he spoke.

"That's great, Jim. What's next? You going to say I'm somehow responsible for my parents being killed too?" She snapped, as she stood up from where she was sitting.

"I'm not saying you're responsible." He quickly argued, standing up from his seat as well. "I'm just trying to get the full story. Bruce and Alfred aren't the ones living high-risk lifestyles, but you are."

When he saw her smile he angrily asked, "This is funny to you, Bird?"

"The fact that you're some shining star at the G.C.P.D and are so far off base with this, yes, it's rather comical." Taking a step forward, her voice lowered as she said, "What happened to Harvey, yeah that's one-hundred percent on me, I'm not denying that's my fault-"

"You know who stabbed Alfred, don't you?" He accused, not understanding why none of them would just tell him the truth.  
The only conclusion he could come to was that someone wanted to take revenge themselves and he was well aware how dangerous Bird could be when provoked.

"I can't help you, Jim." Bird shrugged, seeming disconnected from the entire situation.

Gathering up the folder and her purse from the table, she said, "I'm just on my way back to the hospital, I'll show you out."

Speeding up and getting in front of her in the hallway he blocked her from leaving and said, "You can't keep taking matters into your own hands. I've let a lot of things slide when it comes to you, but I can't keep doing that. It's only right that I warn you-"

"Detective, please." She sighed, cutting him off and rolling her eyes, "The day you arrest me for something will have to be the day you're no longer turning to me and Oswald for underworld help with your really messy cases."

"Everything, every single thing I've done has been to try and fix things –to try and clean up the city." He defended his actions, though as much as he hated to admit it, she had a point when she'd call him out on his turning to criminals when he needed help.

"We both know what the road to hell is paved with." Bird argued, shaking her head as she sighed, "All those good intentions…"

"I think we both know that path is paved with far more than good intentions." He stated.

 **~(The next day)~**

Bird woke up to the sounds of Harvey's voice, loudly echoing through his apartment. With a groan she looked at his empty side of the bed before tossing the blanket off of her and standing up.

Lazily, she made her way out of the bedroom and across the living room until she pulled the door open to his home office to see what was going on.

She got there just in time to see him angrily throw his phone down on the desk, and rub his hand over his face.

"What's going on?" Bird asked, walking into the room.

"What's going on is this day is off to a colossally bad start." Harvey angrily replied, picking up the morning's paper and holding it out for her to take.

Bird took the paper and saw in large print on the front page: ' _Narco Detective Vindicated_ '

"Flass got off?" She asked shocked, knowing that Gabe had given Jim the murder weapon with Flass' prints on it. "That's impossible; they had a tape of the confession and the actual murder weapon."

"I've been prepping the case for the D.A's office and now the defense team has dug up a witness that cleared Flass of all charges." Harvey complained, his face red with anger as he yelled, "Apparently the witness was provided by commissioner Loeb."

It was just then that her words sunk in and his gaze landed heavy on her, "Wait; how do you do know about the evidence?"

"I read the papers." She shrugged, but knowing not everything on the case had been printed for the public, he wasn't buying the lie she was trying to sell.

"What did you do?" He pushed, his brown eyes deep with both fear and concern, wondering what she'd gotten herself mixed up in this time.

"I was just trying to help." She defended, already cringing in anticipation from the outburst she could feel coming on.

"Helping who?" He asked, knowing her intention hadn't been to help him considering the evidence had came into play long before his attention had even been brought to the case.  
It was then that he remembered Jim Gordon was the one who'd brought in the evidence to put Flass away.

"Jim?" Harvey guessed, shaking his head as he spoke. "I wasn't aware the two of you were so close-"

"Don't you do that." She complained, cutting him off, before she lied, "This has nothing to do with Jim."

Trying to direct the conversation back to what was currently happening, Bird gathered, "So they're reinstating Flass?"

"Worse." Harvey admitted, "Apparently Loeb is also backing Flass for president of the policeman's union –he's going to have more power than before and with Loeb backing him he'll be untouchable."

His voice lowered back to normal and with an apologetic expression he walked over to her and said, "Look, I know we were supposed to pick up breakfast for your brother and Alfred, and then swing by the hospital, but-"

"It's okay." She assured him, "I understand."

Leaning down he gave her a quick kiss before saying, "I need to get dressed for work."

Nodding she said, "I'll start the coffee."

By the time he made it into the kitchen she was just getting one of the thermos cups down from the cabinet to fill with coffee for his drive to work.

Looking over her shoulder she watched as he continually mumbled things under his breath and every so often would angrily shake his head from side to side; he knew corruption ran deep in Gotham, but some days it just felt like too much to overcome.  
Today was one of those days.

Watching her pour coffee into the cup, he walked over to the refrigerator to get the milk and poured a splash in when she brought the coffee over to him.

After she put the lid on the cup and handed it to him he said, "Sorry again about today."

"It's work, I understand." She assured him, seeing him starting to raise the cup to his mouth she warned, "You'll burn yourself."

"Right." He breathed, a small smile on his lips as he said, "I really missed having you here."

She smiled back, but inside she was a whirlwind of emotion and worry about him and what might happen when he went after Flass.

"You need to be careful." She cautioned, placing her hands flat against his chest and looked up to meet his eyes, "Promise me that you'll be careful, people like Arnold Flass are dangerous and he's already been going out for blood since he got arrested-"

"I promise." He said, silencing her with a kiss, before he said, "I need to go."

Managing a smile she nodded and followed him towards the door, saying bye to him as she started to shut it behind him. Turning around he looked at her and Bird pulled the door back open and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just forgot something." He stated.

She started to ask what he'd forgotten, but she got her answer when he leaned in and claimed her mouth in a passionate kiss. Pulling back he rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip and breathed, "I love you."

"I love you too." She smiled against his mouth before he turned to leave again.

Shutting the door behind him, she leaned back against it and rubbed her hands over her face as her stomach knotted with worry and she started to understand what he must be feeling every time she left to work for Falcone and he knew of the danger she could be walking into.

 **~(Later that day)~**

Bird walked into the police station and looked around for any sign of Harvey Dent. After taking breakfast to her brother and Alfred at the hospital and checking up on them both, she'd went by Harvey's office to see how things were going and found out that he'd left several minutes earlier for the station.

Her guess was that he'd went to see Jim Gordon, which worried her for several reasons.  
Most of all being that he had the uncanny ability to always make the wrong people mad and end up in life and death situations –and she was scared he'd drag her boyfriend into a danger.

Now that she was there, she wasn't entirely sure what she'd say when she found him, but she couldn't just sit back and not do anything.

Her eyes scanned the station, searching for either Harvey or Jim, but she didn't see either one of them. Finally she spotted Detective Bullock from across the station and was about to go speak to him when she heard someone say her name.

"Miss Wayne."

Turning around; she offered a smile as she asked, "It's Nygma, right?"

"Correct." Ed smiled back brightly as he spoke.

"Hey, have you seen Jim Gordon?" Bird questioned.

Scanning over the main room of the station from behind the thick lenses of his glass he shook his head and answered, "Negative."

Letting out a sigh she nodded in thanks even though he'd been no help at all.

"Are you alright?" He asked, catching the worried look on her face.

Turning back to face him, she remembered him telling her how he worked in forensics and asked, "You have equipment here to run DNA tests right? Like run two blood samples to see if they're related… for example…" She breathed with a shrug, "Father and daughter?"

"A paternity test?" He asked but it was more of a statement and he didn't give her chance to say anything as he quickly nodded, "Yes."

"So, if someone had two blood samples and brought them to you… you have both the equipment and the know-how to do a paternity test?" Bird said, hopefulness in her tone.

"Is the sky blue?" He repeated back calmly, before he burst out into laughter and quickly adding, "Well, light is scattered by air molecules in Earth's atmosphere and the color blue is scattered more than other colors –it travels faster, you see, in smaller waves. That's actually why we, as humans, see a blue sky most of the time-"

"I don't understand why you're educating me about why the sky is blue." Bird admitted, cutting him off with raised eyebrows.

"Right!" He exclaimed, shaking his head at himself, "Yes, the answer yes."

"Thank you." She smiled.

"Of course, we typically only use said technology when solving crimes and would otherwise need the consent of both parties being tested-" Ed started to ramble on again until Bird held up her hand and silenced him as she asked, "Hypothetically speaking, of course."

"Hypothetically, yes." He nodded, looking her over before curiously asking, "Why?"

With a shrug she dismissed the conversation topic, "Just wondering, is all."

Just then she spotted Harvey following Jim out of a door across the station and said, "It was nice seeing you again, thanks for the talk."

Turning in place and following her with his eyes, he called after her, "Have a nice day."

"You want to bring Bullock in on this, we might need his help?" Harvey asked Jim as they walked across the station after questioning Commissioner Loeb's older partner, Griggs.

"No." Jim gruffly replied. After learning it was Bullock that had been the one who Loeb had on video as the surprise witness; who's testimony had freed Arnold Flass, he was less than thrilled to be around his partner and didn't want to bring him in on the angle he was now working.

"Harvey!" Bird called out, jogging between the rows of desks to catch up with him.

"Hey." He greeted, concern already on his face as he asked, "Are you okay? What are you doing here?"

Looking between them, Jim glanced to Harvey and said, "I'll meet you outside."

Once he was gone Bird said, "I don't think you should go after Flass. You said the witness came from Loeb, so this goes way up and these are dangerous people-"

Clearing his throat, Harvey glanced around them to make sure no one was listening before he quietly asked, "You work for Falcone –yet you're trying to tell me that my job is too dangerous?"

"That's my point, Harvey. I've seen the opposite side of these things and they don't usually pan out well for the do-gooder." Bird argued.

"Starling…" He sighed shaking his head, "This is my fault, I shouldn't have even told you as much as I did this morning." Looking towards the doors that Jim had left through, he continued, "I don't have time for this right now, I have to go. We've got a lead and Jim is waiting for me."

"What lead?" She pushed, but instead of an answer Harvey pecked a single, quick kiss to her lips and said, "I have to go."

"Harvey!" She called after him, but he didn't turn back. He was on a mission, only Bird feared it was going to be a suicide mission.

Letting out a frustrated noise, she rubbed her hands over face and when she moved them she saw another man coming out of the room she'd seen Jim and Harvey coming out of moments before.

With narrowed eyes she started towards him, determined to find out who he was and where he'd sent them running off to.

 **~()~**

Bird pulled off the side of the road into the small parking lot of an office building that had been closed for several years and watched in her mirror as the car that had been tailing her pulled in behind her.

When Bullock got out of the car, she blew out a sigh and got out of her own car as she yelled, "Why are you following me?"

"You're up to something." Bullock accused pointing a finger at her and added, "And I'm thinking that something has to do with wherever the hell Jim ran off to." He walked closer and saw the look on her face and the nearly unhinged looked in her eyes he'd seen her have on several occasions and stated, "Don't you get those crazy eyes with me."

"Nope, nothing to do with Jim." Bird lied, stubbornly shaking her head back and forth, before asserting, "Stop calling me crazy eyes."

"No?" He repeated back, clearing not believing her.

"I'm done trying to save Jim's life –he just turns right back around and puts himself in danger again." She pointed out, before sighing, "And keeps putting the people around him in the line of fire.

"You're telling me." He exclaimed, his eyes narrowing some as he asked, "If you're done trying to help my partner, what are you doing out here. I saw you high-tail it out of the GCPD not too long after Jim did."

Rubbing her forehead and thinking that standing around talking to Harvey Bullock was the last thing she had time for, Bird sighed, "Because I think he's going to get someone very important to me killed, okay? So, if you'll just excuse me-"

"Oh that's right!" Bullock remembered, "You and Dent."

"Yes and I might still have time to save him from Xi Lu's men-"

"Xi Lu? The Chinese book keeper?" Bullock asked, raising his eyebrows as he said, "If that's where they are then we're talking about going against about twenty knife wielding maniacs. What's your plan, huh? Storm the place and hope they don't slice you up like a Christmas ham?"

"Something like that." Bird shrugged, as she started to turn back to her car, but Bullock stopped her with a heavy sigh as he said, "I'll drive."

Turning around with an arched brow she asked, "What?"

"Get in the car." He said, walking back to his own car as he called over his shoulder, "Come on, let's go. My conscience is heavy enough for one day."

Pausing for a moment, she finally gave in, thinking she could use all the help she could get and time was already working against her –with that she jogged over and got into the passenger seat of his car.

When they reached Xi Lu's place, everything looked calm enough from the outside.

"What's your plan?" He questioned looking over at her.

Glancing at him from the corner of her eyes she admitted, "Save my boyfriend and try not to get killed."

"Great, A-plus plan. Got any ideas on how to pull that one off?"

"I've gotten out of stickier situations." Bird shrugged, keeping her eyes on the building for any sign of trouble.

When she heard a laugh from him, she broke her sight on the building to look at him and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Just you and that A.D.A with the coin trick is all." He admitted, shrugging, "Never saw that one coming."

"Coin trick?" She questioned, temporarily forgetting about the perilous situation they were all in.

"Yeah, you know… that two-headed coin of his-"

"Two-headed coin…" Bird repeated before he could even finish what he'd been saying.  
Her mouth hung open when she remembered back to when he'd first gotten her to agree to go out with him, he'd done so by flipping his coin and saying if it landed on heads they were meant to be.

Shaking her head and trying to stay focused, Bird looked back to the front of the Chinese restaurant just in time to see the workers who'd been up front all pick up knifes and disappear from sight.

"That's not a good sign." Bullock stated the obvious, and Bird opened the door to get out and run inside, but he stopped her when they heard sounds of men yelling in Chinese. "They sound close." He warned.

Bird pulled in a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing on which direction the voices were coming from.

Shutting the door she pointed to the right side of the building where there was a fenced off alley way. Bullock pulled out onto the street and turned around so he could back into the alley and be able to quickly drive away. Once he had the car lined up and in reverse, he stomped on the gas petal and busted through the fence. Sending crates and barrels flying into the air that had been stacked up outside of the restaurant and nearly backing right into the two men they'd come there to save.

Flinging the passenger door open for one of them to jump in through, Bird then scrambled between the seats and threw open one of the back doors as Bullock yelled, "Get in!"

Jim dove into the front passenger seat and Harvey quickly got into the backseat, barely getting the door closed behind him before Bullock sped off when he saw some of the men break through the fence at the other end of the ally –including one who was wildly swinging an axe at the car.

The drive was silent back to the small parking lot where Bird had left her car to ride with Bullock as both Jim and Harvey struggled to catch their breath. Once the car was stopped, Harvey looked around before insisting, "We've got to go back there! You've got to call back up-"

"Forget it the place with be cleaned out in five minutes!" Bullock yelled back at him, as he shut the car off and blew out a heavy sigh.

"But-" Harvey started to argue how they had to do something about all the illegal activity they'd just witnessed, but Bird shook her head and cut him off, "Bullock's right, the place is probably already cleaned out."

"Of course I'm right." He commented from the driver's seat.

"Thanks for dropping by." Jim finally spoke, and his partner looked out of the window and replied, "I've got enough on my conscience."  
He already felt bad enough for being the witness that Loeb had used to clear Flass of his charges –not that he had much choice in the matter. Loeb had files gathered on nearly all the detectives and even high ranking officials, files and evidence of crimes they'd committed and he'd use the threat of exposing them to get his way.

"Griggs set us up!" Jim angrily exclaimed as if the realization had just occurred to him, "Now Loeb knows we're after his evidence cache."

"Griggs sent you and you believed him? That guy would turn on anyone to save his own skin… you just gotta scare him enough!" Bullock stated.

"We tried." Harvey defended.

Shaking his head at them Bullock looked in the rearview mirror and his voice raised as he motioned to Bird and said, "Hell, even she got the information out of Griggs on where he'd sent you idiots running off to!"

Harvey looked over to his girlfriend and with an expectant expression on his face; wondering how she'd gotten the information and what she was even doing there to begin with, but she didn't offer anything up as she continued to avoid his eyes and asked, "So what now?"

"I'll talk to Griggs –let me try to get the information out of him." Bullock offered, glancing over to Harvey Dent as he added, "Trust me counselor, you're gonna want to sit this one out."

Looking over to where her car was parked, Bird nodded, "We're fine from here." Opening her door to get out she paused for a moment and looked back to the detective and quietly said, "Thank you." With a look on her face like it pained her to say those words.

After they watched the detectives drive away, Harvey turned to Bird and asked, "What were you even doing there?"

"Saving your life." Bird pointed out, before she asked, "Harvey, if you were planning something as big and risky as going after Loeb, why didn't you tell me."

His eyes locked with hers and he stated, "It didn't concern you."

"It's your life –it concerns me." She argued.

"I'm getting Déjà vu." Harvey commented, his head cocked to the side as he added, "Only we were on opposite ends of the conversation."

She bit down on the side of her tongue to keep from snapping at him, before she managed to calmly say, "That's completely different. You know I don't tell you about my work because if something ever happened you could be implicated in knowing about criminal activity, Harvey. Plus, it's to protect you-"

"I didn't tell you because you always try to get involved, Starling. Involved in things that you don't need to be." He admitted.

"I know you don't like the people I work around, but you know that I've got connections. Connections that could help you with stuff like this if you'd just tell me what you need help with. I could find out what you needed to know and it wouldn't come back on you-" She yelled, shaking her head as she spoke.

"You don't get it!" He yelled over her.

When she stopped talking, he shook his head at himself and took in a ragged breath before saying, "I can't deplore your lifestyle and the people in it and then turn around and ask you to use those connections."

Gently laying his hands on her upper arms he calmed down even further and softly said, "I know you just want to help."

"Yes, I do." Bird nodded, her voice was soft but he didn't miss the angry look in her eyes as she pushed his arms off of her and said, "And today, you're lucky I did."

Unlocking her trunk, she opened it and retrieved a box.

"What's that?" Harvey asked, as he watched her.

"It's for a friend." She vaguely stated, before she handed him the keys to her car and said, "See you later."

"What?" He asked, watching her with a surprised expression as she turned to walk away from him, "You're walking? It's freezing out here!"

"I don't have far to go." She lied, glancing over her shoulder and feigning a smile as she said, "You need to get back to work and I've got plans to meet a friend."

Waiting until she took a few more steps, Harvey called out, "Which friend?"  
The only answer he got to his question was her continuing to put more distance between them as she walked away.

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you all for reading! Guys, I am so, so close to being done with season 1! ^_^**

 **I hope you're all as excited as I am about season 2 with Bird!**

 **I want to thank Snuffles awesome, Miss E Charlotte, SwingingOnAStar, and Melody Jane for reviewing the last chapter. Thank you all so much for the support!**  
 **And a shout-out and thanks to Land of a billion lights who recently got caught up.**


	45. Glass Reindeer

**XLV**

" _We die a little every day and by degrees we're reborn into different men, older men in the same clothes, with the same scars." ― Mark Lawrence, King of Thorns_

* * *

Oswald had just finished playing a song on the piano currently set up on the stage in his club. Hearing someone clapping, he scrambled up off the piano bench to see who was there, he was sure the club had been empty just moments prior.

A smile spread over his lips when he saw it was Bird standing next to one of the front row tables. Her clapping slowed and she smiled back as she commented, "That was beautiful."

"Thank you." He replied, hobbling down the stairs and walking closer to her when he saw how much snow was in her hair and on her clothes he questioned, "You walked here?"

"From nearly across town." She admitted with a nod before saying, "I come bearing gifts though." She laid her hand on the box on the table next to her and his eyes lit up as he questioned, "Is that what I think it is?"

"The single most expensive bottle of alcohol I have ever purchased in my entire life, yes." Bird said, watching as he opened the box and marveled at the green, decorative bottle.

"Oh yes…" He breathed still inspecting it, before glancing to her and saying, "Expensive and well worth it. Our chance to rule this city is growing ever closer."

" _Your_ chance to rule the city." She corrected, avoiding his eyes as she spoke.

Turning to entirely face her, he cleared his throat and tried to seem unfazed by her words, but his own voice came out shaky at best when he stammered, "You've made your decision then?"

"I want something different than all of this." She admitted with sadness in her eyes, "Oswald think about it, I've been running around the darkest parts of Gotham plotting and scheming since I was sixteen… most days I feel like I'm closer to fifty years old instead of in my twenties. I'm tired and I just want a chance to build something for myself."

"But look at all you've accomplished-" Oswald started to argue, but Bird cut him off as she clarified, "Something outside of organized crime."

Seeing the look on his face she pleaded, "Don't look at me like that. We have a deal, I'll help you climb to the top and then I get to decide what I want."

"You've still got plenty of time to make up your mind." He dismissed what she'd said about already choosing her path with a wave of his hand.

"I already-"

Turning his attention back to the bottle in the box, he cut her off and changed the subject, "I was considering hiring Connor to make the move on Maroni. It won't be long until Tommy Bones is released from Blackgate and as I've told you –Maroni's crew always celebrates at Lidia's. That will be our perfect opportunity to, as they say, get the ball rolling."

"I thought Lidia wasn't interested in selling the bar?" Bird reminded him.

"Yes, well, I've arranged for another meeting with her next week…" Oswald's voice trailed off at the sound of the door opening and a couple sets of footsteps entering.

Seeing Detective Bullock and Detective Gordon enter the room with them, Oswald stood with a smile as he greeted, "Gentleman, so nice to see you. What can I do for you?"

"Oh, hello Jim." Bird called out from where she was sitting, giving him a tight smile and asking, "Come to endanger the life of someone else I care about?"

"What happened with Xi Lu was not my fault." He defended looking at her before letting out a sigh and adding, "Though I am sorry that Harvey Dent got dragged into it."

Oswald looked between them, realizing it must have been a rather eventful morning in Gotham and wondered why Bird hadn't told him anything about it.

"We need to move fast." Bullock cut in, "Now that Loeb knows we're onto him and looking to find evidence to use against him, the clock of opportunity is ticking."

"Am I to assume this has to do with Detective Flass being reinstated?" Oswald questioned, sitting back down in his seat as he stated, "I do read the morning paper."

Sitting down at the table with the pair of friends, Jim filled Oswald in on what was happening and that they'd gotten it out of Grigg's that the only other person who'd know where Loeb kept his cache would be Falcone.  
Which led Jim to the club, yet again, to be asking another favor from Oswald.

After hearing him out, Oswald asked, "You do realize what you're asking me to do? If Don Falcone is working with Commissioner Loeb to keep this trove of secrets hidden and I help you uncover them… I'd be betraying my patron."

"That's right." Jim nodded.

"If he found out… well, he'd be very angry to say the least." Oswald said with a chuckle.

"Enough with the hemming and hawing, are you going to help us or not?" Bullock gruffly asked and Oswald's jaw tensed in anger at the tone of voice that had been taken with him.

Closing his eyes and taking a breath, he kept his anger under control he countered, "Let's say that for arguments sake, I could help you. What's in it for me?"

"Oh come on!" Bullock exclaimed, motioning to Bird as he reminded her, "Hours ago you were on our side. What happened to that?"

"And hours ago I also told you I was done trying to help Jim." Feeling Jim's eyes on her she looked at him and smirked as she added, "Which sucks for you by the way, I'm a great ally to have."

With a slight shrug Oswald commented, "She's not wrong." His eyes moved back and forth over Jim's face as he repeated, "What would I get in return for helping you?"

"I'll owe you a favor." Jim finally said, not having anything else of value or use to offer up.

"No questions asked?" Oswald inquired with a growing look of amusement in his now bright eyes.

"Jim…" Bullock warned from where he was still standing.  
He, himself, was no stranger to working alongside criminals, but he knew enough about the way of the world to know offering up a no questions asked favor was a bad idea.

"Yes." Jim said, his voice had a hiss to it when the word slid from between his teeth.

Looking between the detectives Oswald pointed to the decorative green bottle and asked, "Do you know what this is?"

When no one answered he replied, "Madre Di Dios. Only a hundred bottles made once a year by monks in the Italian countryside." Pausing he added, "It's Don Maroni's favorite."

"What's your point?" Jim questioned.

"Oh…" Oswald breathed with a shrug, "It's just a piece of information that might be useful one day. I like information."

With that, Jim's eyes went back to Bird; when he remembered her telling him before that she liked information as well. He had a feeling that his owing a favor wasn't going to be payment enough for the help he was asking for.

"If I help you find where Loeb keeps his files…" Oswald started to say, motioning between himself and Bird he continued, "You give us ten minutes alone with them and we take what we want."

"This is not a good idea." Bullock spoke up, and Jim didn't disagree but he also didn't have another choice.

"Sounds fair to me." Bird backed her best friend as she looked between the detectives.

"Five minutes and you don't touch anything that has to do with the cops." Jim bartered.

"Five minutes with the files and a favor from Jim Gordon?" Oswald asked, with a laugh he agreed, "Done! So, who's up for a road trip?"

He and Bird both stood up and Bullock complained, "We're taking them both? Jim, we don't know what we're walking into here and you want to bring the _both_ of them along?"

Knowing that he needed Oswald to get them to the stash and that Bird, for reasons that defied his logic, was so fiercely protective over her friend and wouldn't trust them to keep him safe, he stood up with a sigh and looked to his partner as she said, "Looks like they're a packaged deal."

 **~()~**

After what felt like days in the car, thanks to the awkward silence inside between the four, they finally pulled up to an large, old farmhouse sitting by itself at the end of a dead end road far outside of the city.

Putting the car into park, Bullock asked, "You sure about this, Penguin?" Shaking his head, he muttered under his breath, "You're telling me this is where Loeb keeps twenty years of dirty secrets? It doesn't feel right…"

"Maybe that's the point?" Jim quietly added, and Oswald looked beside him to Bird and rolled his eyes at the detectives. They came to him for help, which he felt he was graciously providing and now they were questioning whether his help was actually helpful.

"What would you prefer Detective Bullock? A sign saying super-secret blackmail hoard?" Oswald sarcastically said when he just couldn't hold his silence for a second longer.

Looking over into the backseat Bullock reminded him, "You know the last time the three of us took a ride, you were in the trunk. I liked that better."

"Yes, only now there are four of us and if you so much as try and touch him -you'll be the one who winds up in the trunk." Bird warned, sighing as she added, "You got what you wanted –he led you to the stash as promised."

Turning back around in his seat, Bullock muttered under his breath about how if he wanted to put Penguin in the trunk that he'd put him in the trunk and Oswald's voice raised as he reminded them, "I told you that I overheard Falcone on the phone to Loeb; he said the farm was safe. Now, we'll wait here and when you're done… flash the lights or something."

"Uh-uh." Jim argued, "You're coming along."

As he looked into the backseat he saw both Bird and Oswald growing distressed by the news and looking like they'd lost the upper hand since the detectives had come into the club looking for help.

"Look at the house Jim, there's smoke coming out of the chimney, there's clearly someone in there!" Bird exclaimed, shaking her head stubbornly to show she wasn't a fan of where the night was heading.

"And if whoever is in there sees me-" Glancing beside him to his friend, Oswald corrected, "Sees us and reports back to Falcone-"

"Then you'll be in some really deep doo." Bullock agreed, a smirk toying at his lips when he continued, "What did you think, huh? We'd go do your dirty work and then you were just gonna waltz in and pick through the leavings? Have some respect."

Bird and Oswald exchanged looks, silently agreeing that if there was anyone inside of the house that they weren't going to survive the night –it was just too risky.

Everyone in the car jumped when there was a knock on the outside of Oswald's window. Startled, Oswald scooted close to Bird in the backseat and Jim drew his gun but held it low and out of sight.

"Roll it down!" Bird whisper yelled at Oswald, motioning towards his door.

Nodding and moving at a scrambled fast pace, he managed to roll the window down to see an older man standing outside of the car.  
"You fellas lost?" He questioned.

"Good evening, sir!" Oswald greeted, quickly composing himself but his voice still sounded more nasally than usual as he tried to find his words, "We were sent by Commissioner Loeb, might we have a word… out of the cold?"

"Well…" The man said smiling as he surveyed the group inside of the car, "Marge is putting on some tea."

Once they were all inside, the man introduced himself as Jude and had them sit at a round dining room table.  
Bird looked around and up to the threaded light chandelier, thinking how normal the place seemed. If someone wanted to keep something hidden, the farmhouse literally seemed like the last place anyone would go looking.

Catching Jude watching her out of the corner of her eye, Bird politely said, "I love your house, it's got character."

"Very cozy." Oswald nodded in agreement.

"Thank you." Marge said as she entered the room and started to fill all of their glasses with tea and Jude laughed as he nodded in thanks.

"You look familiar." He said looking to Bird, before glancing at his wife and saying, "Doesn't she look familiar, Marge?"

"I haven't the slightest clue why." Bird shrugged, realizing they must have seen her in the paper or on TV at some point.

"So, how long have you two lived here?" Jim asked, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, well… about twenty years." Jude recalled, "Ever since Mr. Loeb bought the place. Hard to believe… time boy." He shook his head as he thought of how fast the years seemed to go, "You should have seen Marge back then; hot-to-trot."

Everyone laughed and Bird politely thanked Marge for the cup of tea when she got to her.

"What were you doing before that?" Bullock questioned, taking a drink from his glass.

"Oh, nothing much. Marge was a nurse over at Arkham and I was working on the railroad." Leaning forward some he moved his arm and hand as if he were pulling the chain to make the train whistle and mimicked a train whistle, "Woo-woo."

"Woo-woo!" Oswald repeated the motion and sound back, before they both started laughing and finally Marge asked, "Why are you all here?"

"Oh, uh… inspection." Jim said as he went to take a drink from his own cup.  
Something that neither Bird nor Oswald dared to do, just in case there happened to be poison or something to knock them out in the tea.  
Paranoia stemming from the fact that neither of them would be above pulling such a trick themselves.

Clearing his throat Jim added, "Commissioner Loeb has some concerns about security."

"We didn't hear nothin' about it." Marge stated, and Oswald was the first to react when he questioned, "You didn't get a letter?"

"No…" She answered shaking her head.

Looking to Bird and then back up to Jude, Oswald said, "That's odd… you should have gotten a letter."

"You got I.D.?" She asked.

"Well, I don't know that –that's necessary." Jude started to say, but Jim retrieved his badge and smiled, "No, no… it's fine." Displaying his detectives shield he said, "Jim Gordon, GCPD and this is Detective Bullock. We're on the commissioners personal detail."

Bird looked over at him in disbelief that he'd really just given their real names.

"They don't look like cops…" Marge argued, pointing to where Bird and Oswald were seated next to each other at the table.

Bird gave her a smile and Oswald said, "We're undercover."

"Undercover?" She repeated back in disbelief.

"Undercover." Bird nodded, backing her best friend's story, "It's difficult and often dangerous work, but someone has to do it."

"Yes, I'd imagine it would be." Jude agreed.

Just then everyone's eyes went to the ceiling at the sounds of thudding coming from the floor above them.

"Damn raccoons." Jude sighed, but it was clear to everyone that whatever was on the floor above them was far larger than a raccoon.

Bird scooted to the edge of her seat, ready to spring into action at a moments notice if she needed too and Bullock said, "Jim, what do you say we get on with our inspection?"

Nodding, he looked to Jude as Jim asked, "Perhaps you wouldn't mind showing us around?"

"Oh, absolutely. Marge would you mind fetching the keys?" Jude asked, and he agreed as she left the room.

Despite their friendly smiles and willingness to help them, the air felt different and Bird's skin started to crawl with anticipation, she felt like the entire situation was going south and heading there fast.

"Now listen, before you go, you have to get a piece of Marge's cake." Jude said, motioning to the large cake in the center of the table as he continued, "She makes it with sour cream; tastes like a warm Sunday morning."

With the thudding from upstairs growing louder and louder, Jim started to stand up as he said, "Maybe we should start upstairs."

Standing up, Jude pleaded, "Now, just wait a lick for the keys." When his wife returned with a shotgun, he said, "Margie-Pie that was quick!"

"Ma'am, put down the gun-" Jim yelled, but didn't get to finish what he was saying when she cocked the gun and fired a shot towards him.

In an instant Bird dove off of her own chair and knocked Oswald to the floor for safety, as not only Marge but her husband Jude who'd drawn a handgun were firing shots all over the room.

"Go, go, go!" Bird whisper yelled as she and Oswald both started crawling on the floor into the other room with plans to reach the nearest door and escape the gun fire being exchanged from both sides, but their escape route was blocked when Marge came out of a door and stood in the path as she cocked the shotgun and aimed it right at Oswald.

As Bird started to get to her feet, she swung her leg out and tripped the older woman, grabbing onto the gun as she raised up farther and roughly pushed it back towards Marge, clocking her with it in the side of the head as the woman was falling to the ground.

Landing with a hard thud on the floor, Marge held onto her head and made pained whimpers as she slightly rolled back and forth.

Walking into the room with them, Jim looked down to the injured older woman before turning to the pair of friends and instructing, "Watch them." Before he and Bullock went up the stairs to see what was causing all the commotion on the floor above them.

"You saved my life." Oswald said, looking to Bird as she handed him the shotgun she'd lifted off of Marge.  
With a smile Bird looked over her shoulder as she headed into the kitchen to check on Jude, she replied, "You think you'd be used to it by now."

Oswald looked down with a smile on his lips, it was true enough he thought, after all the times she'd truly saved his life –one would think he would no longer be surprised, but after spending so many years being treated as something far less than human, with not a single person to claim as a friend –Oswald still had some trouble believing someone other than his mother, would care deeply enough for him to risk their own life to save his.

When Marge stopped moving around, Oswald poked her with the barrel of the gun and when she moved he stammered out with a laugh, "You're lucky I have a soft spot for old ladies."

Moments later Bird entered the room with Jude, who was injured and bleeding from a gunshot wound to his shoulder. "Sit on the couch." Bird instructed and not having a defense against them Jude obeyed the order and soon after they'd gotten Marge up from the floor, Oswald motioned with the gun towards the couch as he said, "Have a seat."

Once they had the older couple seated where they could easily keep an eye on them, Bird whispered, "We can't let them live."

Nodding Oswald agreed but pointed out, "We can't very well kill them here."

"What if we got them back to your club –killed them there?" Bird offered and Oswald agreed.  
"Okay then, follow my lead." She said nodding to him as she walked around and stood facing the couch where Marge and Jude were sitting.

"Wow…" Bird breathed looking them over, "You're both wading in some deep water here. Loeb won't be happy that you weren't able to protect this place."

When the older couple looked up to her she pointed to the ceiling and said, "Those detectives up there… they're going to arrest and bring you in. Just think about it, locked away in a cell in the same place where nearly everyone is under Loeb's control. That's not going to end well for you."

"You've already won." Jude sighed, "You really have to gloat?"

"We're not gloating… in fact, we want to help you." Oswald said, looking between them, "We want to help you escape the inevitable punishment that will fall on your heads when Commissioner Loeb learns of your betrayals."

"It's the way of the world, cops stick together and you were right, Marge. The two of us aren't cops… we're something else entirely and the truth is, we don't want our involvement in this whole situation known. So we're willing to let you go…" Bird explained, watching as Oswald found a pen and paper on a small decorative table and wrote the address to his club down on it.

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming up." Marge said, looking between them.

Turning back to them Oswald said, "We're reasonable, of course and really we all want the same thing. You don't want the severe and likely deadly punishment that will befall upon you and we don't want anyone knowing we were here." Holding up the folded paper with the address, he continued, "There's an address on this paper, to a nightclub that's under my care. You can get in the truck I saw outside and go straight there, you'll be safe there –wait on us and once the coast is clear we can supply you with a set of train tickets to a place of your choosing."

"I have a brother in Arizona." Marge spoke up, as she reached over and held onto Jude's hand.

"Two train tickets to Arizona." Bird nodded, all the while knowing neither of them was going to be leaving Gotham; it was too risky.  
Not only would Loeb find out they were there if he managed to find them, but word would get back to Don Falcone and the last time Bird stepped out of line, Harvey Dent had been severely beaten to teach her a lesson and that was something she wasn't willing to risk.

Grabbing Oswald's arm and pulling him to the side, Bird said, "No way is Jim and Bullock going to believe they managed to get past the both of us, I'm going to go upstairs and see what they're doing."

He nodded in agreement and she turned to go up the stairs, where she found Jim and Bullock sitting across a table from a woman she'd never seen before.

"Oh, hello!" The blonde said, jumping back to her feet and looking around with a smile. She'd had more visitors that day than she could ever remember having at once before.

"Hello…" Bird greeted back cautiously taking a few steps farther into the large bedroom, and looking at Jim who gave her look as if to remind her he'd told her wait downstairs.

"What's your name?" The woman asked her excitedly.

"You first." Bird stated and with a laugh Miriam introduced herself, "I'm Miriam… Miriam Loeb."

Bird's eyebrows raised when she realized this must have been commissioner Loeb's daughter, that he, for whatever reason, had decided to keep locked up in the upstairs of an old farmhouse.

"I'm Bird." She finally said, walking over closer to the table and Miriam laughed as she said, "Bird? Your name can't be Bird… a bird is an animal, not a name."

Taken aback and not entirely sure how to respond to her, Bird admitted, "Alright… my name is Starling, but I like to be called Bird." With that she sat down in the empty seat next to Bullock at the table.

Miriam loudly gasped, clapping her hands together as she said, "I love starlings! I've taken up a new hobby, would you like to see?"

"Sure." Jim answered with a tight smile, still hoping to get information out of her.

"Oh great!" She smiled, as she turned and went to the shelf by the window to retrieve the box.

"What are you doing?" Bullock whispered to his partner.

"Loeb's wife died twenty years ago; skull fracture from a fall down the stairs. Miriam would have been a teenager then." Jim explained his reasoning.

"So are you thinking the commissioner killed her or Miriam did?" Bird asked, leaning over and whispering as she joined the conversation. Both detectives gave her a look that silently screamed for her to stay out of it.

Scoffing she leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest until Miriam came back to the table and said as she brushed her stringy hair out of her face, "I've started making jewelry." Setting the metal box down, she pulled out a necklace and proudly displayed it.

"May I see that?" Bird questioned holding out her hand and Miriam nodded as she handed the necklace over and Bird swallowed hard as she stared down to the handcrafted jewelry.

"Is that made out of…" Bullock asked, looking beside him to where Bird was sitting and inspecting the necklace.

"Bone… yeah, it's made of dead birds." Bird answered, trying her best to keep a smile on her face as she handed it the piece of jewelry back to Miriam that had a center point of two small nearly intact bird skeletons.

"Starlings." Miriam explained, gently rubbing her fingers over the skeletons as she continued, "They uh, they land on my windowsill and you can catch them if you're really silent and still; and I can be really silent and still. Silent as a mouse."

With her widened eyes still fixated on the starling skeletons, Bird mumbled under her breath, "I should have just waited downstairs."

Looking back to Bird, Miriam repeated, "I love starlings."

"After they land on your window, then what do you do?" Jim asked.

"I crush the back of their heads." She explained, clutching so tight onto the necklace that she broken a few of the bird bones in demonstration, "I just press down with my thumb and it makes like… like a popping noise." Breaking a few more of the tiny, fragile bones she repeated, "Pop!"

"Miriam…" Jim asked, "Can you tell us about your mother's death?"

"I'm a good person." She defended, "Sometimes good people make mistakes… that's what father said."

"Did you make a mistake with your mother?" Jim pushed for more information, "Is it like what happens with the birds?"

"No." She chuckled like it was a silly question, "Not like with the birds. I had to use a candlestick on her. She wouldn't stop singing –she knew it was my night. I was supposed to perform at dinner; not her."

"So you hit her and she stopped singing?" Bird guessed, still feeling entirely unsettled as her eyes kept being drawn back to the bone necklace.

"And you're dad covered it up?" Bullock added, taking a bite from one of the cookies out on the table from Miriam's tea party she'd been pretending to host.

"He knew that it was my night!" She continued, with tears starting to well up in her eyes.  
Before she could say anything else there was a gunshot that echoed throughout the house and Jim instructed Bullock to bring Miriam with them as he drew his own gun and headed for the stairs with Bird right behind him.

Once they reached the kitchen, they found Oswald lying on the floor appearing shaken as he stammered, "I'm sorry, Jim. They came at me… I tried…"

The detective's attention was pulled to the window when he heard the sound of a car engine start and got there just in time to see the truck speeding away from the house.

"Did you find what Loeb's hiding?" Oswald asked, as Bird helped him up to his feet, he continued, "Is it here?"

"Yes." Jim stated.

"Well a deal is a deal!" Oswald reminded him, "You have to let me in there."

"Be careful what you wish for." Bird said under her breath, and Oswald started to look at her but then an unfamiliar voice said, "Who's he?"

Turning around Oswald looked at Miriam Loeb with a confused look on his face, walking closer to him she smiled as she realized, "He looks just like a bird." Clasping her hands, her smile grew as she continued, "Oh, I love birds!"

"So much so that she kills them in her spare time." Bird whispered to Oswald and he took a few steps away from Miriam in response, as he realized that he'd gotten nothing out of helping them find the house. Loeb was hiding a person there –not boxes of files.

 **~(The next night)~**

"Hey." Harvey greeted as he stood in the doorway of Bird's bedroom and watched her laying on her side in the bed.

"Hey." She quietly replied, he could tell just from the tone in her voice that she was upset about something, not to mention that it was barely seven o'clock at night and she was already in bed.

Laying his keys down on top of her dresser he walked closer as he asked, "Have you been up at all today?"

"Not really." She answered giving a small shrug.

Somedays she functioned better than others, and today was one of the days where she couldn't even bring herself to get out of bed. Her head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and just the idea of trying to lift it from her pillow was exhausting. She'd tried her best to sleep the feeling and the day away, but it hadn't panned out so well. For several hours now she'd just been staring at the wall.

Kicking his shoes off, he sat down in the bed next to her and leaned against the headboard as he silently watched her before admitting, "I tried to bring your car back last night, but you weren't picking up the phone and when I came by here, you weren't here."

"Yeah, I stayed the night at Barbara's last night." She explained, not looking up to him as she softly admitted, "I didn't feel like being alone."

Reaching over he brushed the hair out of her face to get a better look at her as he pointed out, "You've got me."

"It's different." Bird sighed, her voice barely over a whisper as she added, "Barbara understands me."

"And I don't?" He questioned with raised eyebrows and a louder voice than he'd meant to use.

"It's different." She repeated.

"How?" He demanded to know, with his voice still raised over an appropriate talking level. One of the worst feelings in the world to him was when she started to pull away and wouldn't talk to him when something was clearly haunting her.

"Because she doesn't judge me, Harvey." Bird finally said, as she sat up and faced him with the side of her hair she'd been laying on tangled and fuzzed out.

"What is that supposed to mean? I don't judge you." He said in a voice much harsher than he'd meant for it to be.

Closing her eyes, she shook her head and softly said, "You do. I'm not so sure you mean to do it, but it's like when something comes up and reminds you about who I am and what I do… you get this judgmental look on your face."

His eyes moved back and forth across her face, taking in her features and somber expression as he watched her, before finally asking, "Is this about yesterday? Is that why you're so down?"

"It's just sort of everything." She whispered, closing her eyes like she was fighting back tears before she slowly laid back down in the same spot she'd been in for hours.

The look of concern on his face grew and he asked, "Starling?"

When she didn't say anything back to him, he scooted over closer to her and gently pulled her against his side, halfway expecting her to pull away from him with the way she was acting, but instead she scooted up farther in the bed and nestled against his side laying her head on his chest and listening to the sound of his beating heart.

Keeping his arm around her and holding her close to him he admitted, "You're scaring me."

"I'm fine." She assured him, her eyes closing as she explained, "Somedays it just feels like my head is too heavy from everything in it."

"What do you mean?" His voice was soft, full of love and concern as he tried to understand what she was feeling. He wanted to help her, but he didn't even know where to begin.

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"Yes you do." He argued with her, but kept his voice calm as he explained, "I just want to understand."

"You can't understand it, I don't think anyone can." Bird admitted, reaching up and rubbing her forehead as she said, "I've had these days ever since I was a kid. Just days where the world is dark and the thoughts in my head are so jumbled I can't make heads or tails of anything." Opening her eyes, she stared back to the wall she'd been watching and draped her arm across his stomach as she whispered, "If you really want to live with me, you'll just have to get used to it."

Unsure of what to do or say to make her feel any better, he helplessly asked, "Can I get you anything?"

"No." She declined.

"Well, I'm not leaving." He stated, and the words put a small smile on her face as she admitted, "I don't want you to leave."  
Somehow, just having him there with her made her feel a little better; made her head feel a little lighter.

Several more minutes passed with neither of them saying a word until he finally sighed, "Look, about yesterday. I know that you were just trying to help, but you know that I don't condone the criminal aspects of your life and what kind of person would it make me to ask you to exploit those contacts when I want you as far away from that part of your life as you can possibly be."

"Someone with a moral compass way better tuned than my own." She breathed.

"No." He argued, but Bird didn't let him say much else as she argued, "Yes, Harvey the fact is that we are on two very different playing fields when it comes to what we think is right and wrong."

Closing his eyes Harvey asked, "You remember after the assassins went after Jim's witness and they got to Lovecraft?"

"Of course." She nodded against his chest, "Mayor James called it a suicide and claimed Jim's overzealous questioning had been too much for Lovecraft and he offed himself."

"Exactly, yeah, and then Jim got sent to work security at Arkham." Harvey nodded, "He held a meeting with the both of us before the press conference that day where the mayor pretty much tore into each of us and let it be clearly known how much of an inconvenience it was that we were both honest men and even though he wanted to punish us both that two scapegoats would have looked like panic."

"And so he picked Jim to take the fall for it, so what? Everything turned out okay." She said.

"Do you know why he picked Jim though?" Harvey questioned and while Bird remained silent she guessed it probably had something to do with the day he'd tried to arrest the mayor at gunpoint and used him to get into Falcone's house.

"Because while Jim held his ground, arguing that we'd done the right thing, when it was my turn to speak I apologized for the mess we'd created and told him I was at his disposal. He said he was punishing Jim because I knew how to walk the line, that I knew where the edge was and it's true." Pulling in a ragged breath, Harvey continued, "I was the youngest A.D.A to be hired on when I started working and the truth is that I've done a lot of morally questionable things to get as far I have and I'm always able to excuse it because I'm working for something bigger –a higher position to where I can really work to bring justice to Gotham."

"Is that why you so easily accepted me and all the bad I've done?" Bird asked, finally raising her head and looking at him, "You said that the fact I want to change and get away from this part in my life meant more to you than the stuff I've done along the way.

"We're not so different." Harvey pointed out, his eyes locking with her as he added, "So you see, I'm not judging you… it's not like I even have a moral high ground to stand on to do so."

"But I do have lines I'm not willing to cross and one of those to have you get in any deeper with organized crime because I need help with something." He asserted, with confidence in his tone as he added, "When you're finally able to step away from that world, I want it to be a clean break –no strings attached."

Her gaze dropped at his words, while the idea of a clean break sounded appealing –she knew that world would always be a part of her and as long as Oswald was still choosing that life for himself, she'd have an unbreakably strong tie into the life of organized crime –even if she wasn't actively involved.

"We're okay right?" Harvey asked, not missing how quick she was to divert her eyes from his.

"Yes." She said with a smile as she raised up and pressed a kiss to his lips.

"Good." He breathed when she pulled back, "Because I have something for you."

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small key ring and placed it in her had. Raising up in the bed farther she asked, "What are these to?"

"I met with the real-estate company this morning and they accepted our offer on the brownstone. There's still some paperwork you need to sign and-"

"We have a house?" Bird asked, a stunned expression on her face as she looked at him with her brown eyes wide and full of shock and excitement. Like she truly didn't believe anything was going to work out in their favor.

"A very old three story house that's probably going to cost us more in repairs than having a new house built…" His voice trailed off and he smiled as he saw the expression on her face, leaning in he kissed her -pulling back just enough to say, "We have a house." before claiming her lips again.

 **~(Flashback)~**

"Thank you for meeting with us." Thomas Wayne said with a sincere expression as he shook the psychiatrists hand and directed him into one of the lavish sitting rooms within Wayne Manor, where his wife, Martha, was waiting.

"Of course." Dr. Campbell smiled, then shook Martha's hand and sat down in a chair across from the couple before clearing his throat and asking, "You didn't give me much detail over the phone…"

"Yes." Thomas nodded, glancing over to his wife before looking back to the doctor and saying, "We trust we can count on your discretion?"

He nodded, looking between he added, "There is no shame in seeking out help within the mental health field."

"I know. It's just that being who we are…" Thomas breathed, shaking his head, "When I was growing up, a close relative of mine struggled deeply with an array of mental illnesses and my own father stressed to me how important it is to not have those sort of things be called into question when you're running a company and I-"

"I understand." Dr. Campbell nodded, motioning with his hand he added, "Why don't you tell me about the problems you've been having with your daughter? How old is she?"

"She'll be turning ten in a few short months." Martha explained, with a small smile before adding, "We adopted her when she was about five, so she's been with us for half of her life."

Dr. Campbell nodded, and jotted down some notes in the pad of paper he'd taken from his briefcase.

"She had a rough start to life-" Thomas started to say, but Martha cut in, "Rough doesn't even begin to cover it. You should have seen the foster home we found her in."

The room fell silent, the only sound was the crackling of the recently added logs to the fire place.

"We're at a loss." Thomas finally said with a helpless tone present in his words and a broken look in his tired eyes. Rubbing a hand over his face he continued, "It was a tough adjustment period once we finalized the adoption and got Starling here, but we felt like she was really coming around to trusting us. She'd take to calling us mom and dad rather quickly."

Nodding, Martha added, "She was a little behind the other kids her age once she started school, but we got her the best tutors and it didn't take her long for her to catch up. She even started to make friends, we were so proud of how far she'd come and then…" Pulling in a deep breath she continued, "Then we had Bruce since then things have gotten progressively worse."

"She knows that she isn't your biological child." Dr. Campbell reasoned, "I'd imagine she's struggling trying to find her place and role within the family, since the recent addition of her brother. It's not uncommon for adopted children to be jealous when a new child comes into the picture."

A sad smile fell over Martha's lips and she glanced over to her husband before looking down to the floor and saying, "I don't think the problem is jealousy."

"The more time goes on the more we're really starting to see that Starling isn't…" Thomas breathed, closing his eyes and wishing he could find a better way to word what he had to say, "For lack of a better term; normal."

Nodding Martha agreed, "Now all I can think is that we've missed so many signs over the last five years and that we should have gotten help much sooner. We have always let her know how much she means to us, that she is a part of our family and that we love her dearly and I –we thought that was going to be enough for her to heal from everything she faced before we found her, but… then-"

"Bruce is three now." Thomas explained, "And like we said, since he was a baby things have only gotten worse with Starling, but it's not jealousy. We're not exactly afraid that she'd hurt her little brother –intentionally at least."

"Go on." Dr. Campbell instructed.

"It feels like all the progress we'd made with her has somehow come undone." Thomas admitted, "We tuck her into bed in her room every night and then in the morning we find her asleep on the floor in Bruce's room. Instead of joining in on family activities, Starling just sits to the side and watches us like a hawk, as if she doesn't trust us with him. A few weeks ago he tripped over one of his toy trucks and fell, he started crying and when Martha tried to pick him up… Starling threw the toy at her. She didn't want either of us around him."

"She's violently protective over Bruce." Martha nodded, touching the side of her head where she had a fading bruise from where the truck had collided with her face. "Even when he was a baby, and would be crying and fussing like babies do… she'd stand in the doorway and just stare us down. Like we'd hurt him and made him cry."

"It's possible that Bruce's arrival triggered something horrific she could have witnessed in the foster homes or orphanages, if she saw other children being abused, she would have felt entirely helpless to do anything to stop it. I'd say there's a good chance that inside, she's relieving some of that trauma and is trying to stop it from happening all over again." Dr. Campbell explained.

"I don't doubt that." Thomas agreed, "We also find food hidden and stashed all over Bruce's room, and we think Starling is hiding it there so he won't go hungry."

"Which breaks our hearts." Martha frowned, "But it's bad enough that she's constantly hiding food in her own room, and Bruce is only three and at that stage where he wants to put everything in his mouth –and its a health hazard to have old, rotting food within his reach."

Silently the doctor nodded and looked at them expectantly, knowing they weren't done.

"There's more that's troubling too." Thomas quietly said, "She spaces out so often, we'll find her just sitting and staring straight ahead with this vacant look in her eyes. Other times, we've overheard her talking to herself… full conversations with her answering questions as if she is truly actively engaged in a conversation with nothing more than the air around her. Her teachers say she's having trouble focusing in school and her grades have significantly dropped."

"And her moods." Martha pointed out, as she reached over and held onto her husband's hand and nodded for him to explain.

"She can be so bright and happy some days." Thomas said, "And then sometimes she's so upset for seemingly no reason that we can't even get her out of bed to go to school. She just lays there and she won't hardly speak to us, won't even touch her favorite foods. She entirely shuts down and I don't know how to help her."

"And the anger…" Martha breathed, "My god, she doesn't just get mad over things, she flies into a rage to the point that I… I hate to admit this, but she's scared me before. But worst of all is when she starts to come down from those rages –we've had to physically hold her down to keep her from hurting herself."

"Hurting herself?" The doctor questioned.

"Pulling her hair, in chunks so large her scalp has bled. She sprained her wrist once be slamming her hand down so hard on the table. We've witnessed her hitting her head against the wall, digging her nails into her skin so hard she's nearly broken the skin." Thomas finally said when his wife got too choked up to speak.

"That is definitely not normal." Dr. Campbell agreed, laying his paper down on the glass coffee table in front of him before explaining, "There are several different approaches we could take here. The concern is that she's at a difficult age for any official diagnoses. There could be several underlying issues and more than likely she's suffering from PTSD and depression, possibly even manic depression…" Blowing out a sigh he said, "I'll need to speak with your daughter, I like to have several sessions before I'll say anything officially on what she could be struggling with."

"Mr. Wayne, you mentioned having a family member with mental illnesses. Is this what alarmed you with your daughters behaviors?"

Slowly Thomas nodded and Martha gave his hand a comforting squeeze, but no other information was offered up.

"There is always the option of removing her from the house." The doctor pointed out, "It's clear you love her, but she might be better off somewhere with around the clock care from healthcare professionals equipped for situations such as this-"

Martha cut him off, "We have worked so hard to build a relationship with her and if we send her off somewhere, she's going to see it as abandonment."

Swallowing hard Thomas agreed, "That's not an option."

Looking between the married couple, who wore equally tired and devastated expressions; the doctor pulled in a heavy breath and let it settle in his lungs before he asked, "May I speak frankly?"

They both nodded.

"We live in a world there seems to be a fix for everything, but we're talking about a human being here. A little girl who has been damaged and people aren't cars. You can't just order in replacement parts and patch up the tires and then all is well. I know you brought me here because you're at the end of your rope and you want me to tell you how to fix this." Dr. Campbell stated, "The truth is you can give her all of the love in the world, set her up with all the proper tools to lead a successful and happy life, but you need to face the reality that she might never fully get past the trauma. We can try psychotherapy and eventually some medication, but you both need to realize that it's going to be a long and rocky road."

"You're saying she might just be too damaged?" Thomas asked with a raised eyebrow before gruffly saying, "This is my daughter we're talking about. A member of our family."

Looking between them, the doctor asked, "Who was it in your family you spoke of with mental illnesses? The relative you mentioned?"

Seeing the reluctance in Thomas' face, the doctor promised, "Nothing you say here will leave this room."

"Tell him." Martha said, nodding towards the doctor and looking to her husband, "If we want to help her we need to lay all the cards on the table."

"My older sister." Thomas finally said.

Dr. Campbell watched him, picking up on his body language and cleared his throat as he started to ask, "Is your sister-"

"Starling!" Martha gasped, jumping up from her seat upon spotting her daughter standing in the doorway to the room, dressed in her pajamas and holding onto the arm of the arm of her favorite purple teddy bear, with tear stained cheeks as she stared at the three adults.

"Oh my god…" Thomas breathed, also standing up and internally kicking himself as he wondered how long she'd been watching them.

She was always sneaking about the house, overhearing conversations she shouldn't be, always watching.

He took a step towards his daughter, but she turned and ran out of the room, her socked feet causing her to slide across the polished wood floor as she darted towards the stairs.

It was just a few minutes later that her parents opened up the door to her room, and found her sitting on the floor with her back against the wall and her legs pulled up to her chin.

"Honey?" Martha softly said as she pushed the door to the room farther open and walked in, but Starling wouldn't look up at her.

Thomas followed just a few steps behind his wife, but he came to a stop when he saw the top of his daughter's dresser was adorned with not just one –but three purple glitter lamps.

He bit down on the inside of his cheek, knowing now wasn't the time to do so, but he needed to bring it up to his wife later.  
Time and time again, he'd stressed how her obsession with having items in sets of threes was something they needed to stop.

Martha's argument was that he was working while she had to be there dealing with her, and that she didn't see how it hurt anything.

As he walked further inside the room, he caught sight of one of his gold watches sitting on the table next to Starling's bed and he blew out a sigh. Whenever anything shiny went missing they could almost always find it tucked away somewhere in her room.

It wasn't so bad when it was just items from around the house, but now why had been trying to put a stop to her pilfering since she'd started to come home from school with items that didn't belong to her.

Shaking his head, he decided to let it go and not say anything over the stolen goods as he sat down on the floor next to Martha and watched as Starling slowly raised her head and looked between them.

Her cheeks were wet from tears, her eyes red and raw from her rubbing them. Slowly, she readjusted the way she was sitting, but kept her purple teddy bear clutched tightly in her little hands and continued to stare at them, her eyes were alert, waiting for any movement or sign of what was going to happen.

Thomas cleared his throat, but just as he opened his mouth to begin the conversation with her, Starling cried, "Please don't send me away!"

"Baby, we're-" Martha started to say, but didn't get much a chance as a fresh wave of tears rolled down Starling's cheeks and she added, "I'll be better, I promise. I can be normal, I'll be good."

Her parents exchanged heartbroken glances. They'd both been wondering just how long she'd been in the doorway listening in on the conversation, now it was clear to see she'd been there for quite a while.  
They'd called Dr. Campbell there to help her, only now they were both left wondering how much the night had set her back.

Frantically, she looked between her parents, every passing second of silence feeling like an eternity, until Martha wasn't able to keep her own emotions in check and tears started to roll down her cheeks.  
What had she done? How could she have not known her daughter was in there listening to them –listening to her own her mother and father say she wasn't normal?

The guilt felt like a jagged blade being plunged into her chest and continually spun around; cutting deeper and deeper with every turn.

"Mommy, don't cry…" Starling whispered out, not understanding what was going on and taking the tears as a sign that they were really going to send her away somewhere, "Why are you crying?" She hoarsely questioned.

"I just…" Martha scrambled up to her feet, trying to dry her cheeks but the tears just kept flowing, "I need a moment. I'm sorry, my little song bird."

As she watched her mother leave the room, Starling looked to her dad as she shakily admitted, "I didn't mean to make her cry."

"You didn't, it's not your fault." Thomas quickly said, "Your mother is just sad."

"Why?" She asked, still fearing the worst, "Am I going somewhere? Do I have to leave with that man?"

"No." He stated, shaking his head back and forth, before he admitted, "Dr. Campbell has already left for the night."

"Is he coming back?"  
When she didn't get an immediate answer, tears welled up in her eyes all over again and she cried, "I'll be better, dad. I promise… I won't do anything wrong anymore and I'll-"

"We're not trying to punish you." He explained, "Your mother and I… we just… we need some help to make things better here –better for you."

When she looked down to the teddy bear in her hands and started pulling on the mismatched button eye that had to have been sewn back on at least twenty times, Thomas asked, "Do you understand why we need that help?"

Starling nodded, slowly raising her head and looking at her father to answer his question, "Because I'm like the reindeer."

"What?" He asked, his forehead lining, "What are you talking about?"

"The glass reindeer." Starling clarified, "The one I knocked off the mantle last Christmas, remember?"

"I do." He nodded, remembering it had gotten broken after she'd thrown a ball inside of the house.  
Reaching out he gently took her hand and pointed to a scar on her palm as he recalled out loud, "You didn't listen to me about throwing that ball around inside of the house, and then you didn't listen to me when I told you to stay away from the broken glass."

She looked down at the mark on her palm and nodded. She'd been so worried about getting into trouble that she'd tried to gather up the broken pieces so she could try and fix it –but ended up getting glass in the palm of her hand and earning a trip to the hospital.  
Her mother had been so scared with how much the wound had bled.

"But what does that reindeer have to do with anything?" Thomas questioned, knowing to push the subject rather than just dismiss it.

She often said strange and seemingly irrelevant things in response to being questioned, but sure enough –if someone actually took the time to listen to what she had to say; there was always a deeper and relevant point.

"I thought we could fix it." Starling said, still fussing with her stuffed animal as she spoke, "But you told me we couldn't, that there were too many pieces… that it was too broken."

"Starling." He calmly said, getting her to look back at him and waiting patiently for her to continue.

"I heard that man downstairs." She admitted, "He said I was too damaged." With a weak shrug she reasoned, "I'm like the reindeer."

He looked up to the bright ceiling light and blinked away some tears of his own.  
It had been a long time since he was ten years old and he couldn't remember exactly what that age felt like, but he was certain that he didn't feel like something broken into too many pieces.  
And the fact that she was so young and thought of herself that way; broke his heart worse than anything he'd seen before.

"Dad?"

"See?" Thomas cleared his throat, "This is why your mother and I are so sad. Not because we think you're broken like the reindeer, but because that's how you see yourself and neither of us know how to help you."

"I don't want to go away." She whispered.

"You're not." He promised her, "We're not sending you away anywhere. We'll figure something out, something that doesn't involve you needing to leave home."

Slowly she nodded.

"Now, it's way past your bed time little lady." He said with a smile, as he got to his feet and held his hand out to help her up and then tightly hugged her, hoping the embrace would settle her nerves some and make her feel protected and safe.

He knew they had a long road ahead of them; a rocky one at best and for the time being they weren't any closer to knowing exactly what they needed to do in order to help her. But they'd figure it out as they went, a way to help that wasn't going to cause her to feel abandoned all over again.

 **~()~**

* * *

 **A/N – Thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Land of a billion lights and Miss E Charlotte for reviewing the last chapter!**

 **I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. :)**


	46. Queen of the Damned

**XLVI**

 _"Her head had turned quickly away...Not to hide her tears but to soften the fact of their absence." ― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West_

* * *

"What the hell is this?" Reggie yelled, as he fought against the ropes that tightly bound him to the chair, his breath rushed in and out of his lungs from fear with the dark cloth bag that had been placed over his head.

He blinked rapidly when the bag was removed from his head and he stared at a man he'd never seen before, a man who upon closer inspection not only was bald, but also didn't have eyebrows or even eyelashes.

"Who are you?" Reggie demanded to know through clenched teeth, before yelling, "Let me go!"

"Well, hello to you too." Victor grinned with a darkness in his eyes as he proudly said, "I'm Victor Zsasz."

Before Reggie could point out that he didn't know him, or ask why the hell the man had taken him; he heard another voice.

"Remember me?" Bird questioned as she stepped out of the shadows from the far side of the room. Letting out a low whistle she held up a roll of hundred dollar bills and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she said, "Quite the chunk of change… now I wonder how someone like you got this much cash?"

Looking between them his mouth hung open, not sure what he needed to say to get himself out of the situation as he resumed trying to break free of the restraints.

Watching him helplessly struggle Victor let out a laugh before he said, "There's no getting out of those."

"It's true." Bird nodded, walking even closer and pausing to take a deep breath before she asked, "Why did you do it? My brother welcomed you into our family's home –to stay there for free out of the cold with hot meals and clean water. I sat there listening to all your old war stories of how far back you and Alfred went… and then you stabbed him."

"You have to understand, I never meant for anything bad to happen." Reggie tried to plead his side of the case before he questioned, "Alfie came through it okay though, right? He's going to be fine?"

"Ooh…" Bird teased, "Careful, Reggie… you almost sound like you care."

"I do care!" He asserted, shaking his head from side to side, "You're in over your head. You have no idea what you're dealing with!"

"Is that a threat?" Bird laughed, looking to Victor who laughed along with her. Holding up the bag they'd taken off of him she accused, "What I'm dealing with is a has-been, someone who by all accounts used to be a great man, a solider –and look at you now, Reggie. A washed up addict." Shaking the bag in the air she continued, "I'm going to guess Heroin, judging by the syringe padded cot we found you sleeping on."

"That's mine!" He yelled, his voice roaring through the room of the abandoned building in The Narrows, he'd been brought to, "That's my medicine!" With his breathing growing erratic he clarified, "That wasn't a threat… and I'm not talking about me. You really haven't a clue in the slightest what you're getting into."

Repeating something Falcone had said to her, Bird cocked her head to the side as she dangled the bag right in front of his face and said, "It's a terrible thing, being caught in the throes of addiction…"

"What do you want?" Reggie finally asked.

"The truth." Bird asserted, stepping forward, "I don't think it's coincidence that you turn up out of the blue after my brother had a meeting with the board at Wayne Enterprises. I've seen far too much to believe in coincidences."

When the room remained silent, Victor looked to Bird and offered, "We could carve the truth out of him?"

"Why does this even concern you?" Reggie practically spat at him, and Bird yelled, "He's a friend of mine. A friend with some very honed and sought after skills –of course if this whole thing goes south, he could very easily turn into your worst nightmare."

The grin on Victor's lips grew and despite facing down countless enemies and fighting his way through nothing short of a hundred life and death situations –there was something about the hitman that left him feeling uneasy at the very least.

"You know, as much as I'm enjoying this conversation; Victor and I are actually on our way to a job and so, sadly, we don't have much time to waste on you." Nodding to her friend, Bird continued, "I want names, Reggie. I want the names of the people who sent you and I want to know exactly what it is that you were after. You're going to tell me what I want to know… and how painful and messy the situation gets is… well, that part's up to you."

"I didn't mean harm to anyone." Reggie quickly stammered out, "I was just supposed to take some documents, but then Alfie walked in…" His voice trailed off before he questioned, "Is he alright?"

"I'm not here to ease your conscience." Bird flatly stated, not giving up any information.

"You shouldn't be doing this." Reggie warned, shaking his head and for a moment it almost seemed like he was being truthful when he said he hadn't meant to harm anyone. Taking a deep breath he continued, "Only Alfie can deal with these people. Your brother's in trouble with the wrong people –the both of you are in over your heads."

"What people?" Bird pushed, "I want names!"

"Bird…" Victor said, stepping up beside her as he reminded her, "We're on a time schedule. Let's take him to my basement and I can work on him later."

With an arched brow, she looked to Reggie and dramatically whispered, "You really don't want to see his basement… trust me."

"There's a woman named Mathis." He recalled, closing his eyes as he continued to explain, "And a guy named Bunderslaw."

"Sid Bunderslaw?" Bird questioned.

Nodding Reggie explained, "He's the guy I dealt with."

"Bunderslaw sent you to Wayne Manor?"

"To find out how much Bruce knew. I was supposed to gather up all the documents he had on the company." Reggie answered honestly.

"What else do you know?" Bird demanded to know.

Feeling like the ropes had only grown tighter and were pressing on his chest making it nearly impossible for him to breathe; he cried out, "Nothing, I know nothing else!"

"Are they going to make a move against me or my brother?" Bird pushed him for more information.

"I don't know… I don't think so, but listen to me… if Bruce keeps meddling I think they will come after him. He's just a child, but these people... they don't care." Reggie warned her before adding, "They don't seem too concerned about you. Your brother is the one they view as a threat."

"Well then…" Bird breathed, "I'll just have to change that then, won't I?"

Reggie stared at her before finally asking, "What happens now?"

Dropping the bag of Reggie's ' _medicine_ ' to the floor, Bird handed the roll of money to Victor who tucked it away in his pocket.

"Hey!" Reggie angrily yelled and Bird snapped, "Shut up. That's blood money you got as payment for coming after my family –no way in hell am I going to let you keep it. You're lucky I'm letting you keep your life."

Looking between them he seemed surprised as he asked, "You're not going to kill me?"

Knowing that Alfred wanted to deal with Reggie on his own, Bird respected that enough to not take the revenge on him that she so desperately wanted too, she stepped closer and leaned down to where she was in his face as she hissed, "I would love nothing more than to put an end to your miserable life… but, this isn't my score to settle."

As she stood up, she slapped him as hard as she could across the face and with a cry of pain he breathed heavily with blood pooling at the corner of his mouth from where his teeth had cut into his cheek as he stared up to her, Bird growled, "That's for Alfred."

Turning she left the room and Victor watched her go with an entertained look on his face. When they'd met up that morning, Bird had told him she had some personal business she needed to take care of first. With her being one of the few people that Victor had come to occasionally enjoy the company of, he'd agreed to come with her.

His eyes were dark and fixated on Reggie who was hunched forward in the chair, blood and saliva running from his open mouth as he breathed heavily through the pain.

Walking up to him, Victor kicked a leg off the wooden chair and watched as the chair toppled over bringing Reggie down with it. With a satisfied grin he watched the man continue to helplessly struggle with the ropes and chair, left even more defenseless on the floor, before he turned and left to catch up with Bird.

 **~()~**

After explaining her situation to the store associate and thanking her for suggestions and for her help; Bird looked down to the stack of paint swatches she'd accumulated.  
Sticking a few of them back in the display without even attempting to find their correct placement, she let out a small sigh and stepped out into the main isle of the store.

"Bird."

She didn't even have to turn around to know who'd called her name.

"Hello, Jim." She greeted, as she walked to the other side of the paint strip display and didn't turn around to face him. "Following me again?" She asked.

"I'm not following you." He sighed, before pointing out, "This store is on my way home."

Bird didn't say anything else to him as she continued to try and act like she was busy looking over the display.

She never quite knew which Jim she was going to be dealing with; the one who showed up with a tight lipped smile asking for favors or the overly self-righteous and judgmental version of him.

"How are you?" Jim questioned, before adding, "I've been meaning to stop by Wayne Manor to check up on your brother, but I've been busy."

"Yes, well, I imagine it's tiring trying to clean up a city like Gotham." She calmly replied before quickly swiping up three different variations of green colors from the paint swatches.

He was silent as he watched her with so many questions floating around in his head.  
He'd recently found out the bodies of the elderly couple watching the house that Loeb kept his daughter in had been found and there was no doubt in his mind that either Oswald or Bird –possibly both were responsible for their deaths.

He was also still angry about being kept in the dark over who'd attacked Alfred and couldn't understand why no one would clue him in when all he wanted to do was help.

Deciding to choose a topic that wouldn't likely anger her and send her back into ignoring and avoiding him, he asked, "I heard Alfred was released a while ago from the hospital?"

"He's doing a lot better." She answered, still not turning around to face him.

Even though he hated to admit it to himself, Bird was right when she'd pointed out to him weeks ago that she was a good ally to have –especially when it came to his associating with criminals for the greater good.

Tucking his hands in his pockets, he awkwardly looked around for a few seconds and debated just walking away, until he saw Bird again swipe up several more paint swatches and he looked over her shoulder to see how many of them she was holding.

"Planning on painting some rooms in your apartment?" He inquired.

"Nope." She simply answered, as she added a few more shades of blue to the stack.

"You just like collecting these?" He started to joke, until the words came out and he found himself wanting an honest answer from her.  
He'd been in her apartment a few times and she had decorative glass bowls filled with random shiny objects from jewellery to glitter marbles for decoration. Which seemed strange to him, so maybe it wasn't so far outside the realm of possibility that she also collected paint strips.

"For your information…" She breathed, finally turning around to face him, "Not that it's any of your business, but Harvey and I have purchased a house."

"You're buying a house together?" He exclaimed, seeming shocked from the newly learned information, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I hope so. We've already closed with the realtor and have people in there working on renovations as we speak." Bird answered in a dismissive tone like she didn't have time to be there speaking with him.

"I just mean that's a pretty big step." He clarified, clearing his throat, "You sure that's what you want?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" She asked, turning back around and looking at him with an arched brow. Clearly ready to shoot down any protest he'd have.

"I don't know…" He stammered, dumbstruck from the question and before he could stop himself he admitted, "I don't like it."

A look of confusion spread over her face and she asked, "I thought you liked Harvey Dent?"

"I do." He nodded.

"Oh, so it's me then?" She guessed, getting ready to remind him yet again how he was only alive because of her help.

"I didn't say that." He loudly remarked, knowing exactly where that conversation was going to lead and every single time she pointed out how much she'd helped him, it was an even harder pill to swallow.

"Then what is it?" She demanded to know.

Stepping closer and lowering his voice, Jim started to say, "It's just…"

"Just what?" Bird cut in, "And don't you dare bring up how he hurt my hand that day. It was an isolated incident and I've already explained to you what happened."

"Living under the same roof with someone else… doesn't give you much space to get away if you get into an argument." He added, his voice just barely over a whisper.

"I don't need to get away from him, Jim." Bird argued, moving even closer to where he was standing as she added in, "Besides, this city is my playground and if I really needed to get away, I could do so easily."

"Like I said…" He shrugged, "It's just a big step is all."

Her eyes slowly traveled over his face before she questioned in a more thoughtful tone than he was used to hearing from the girl who didn't seem to take anything seriously, "Is there some other reason you don't like the idea of Harvey and I moving in together?"

Jim's eyes locked with hers and he swallowed hard, taking a moment to replay the question in his head.

"Oh, hi!" A voice called out, stirring them both from the moment and eye contact. They quickly both stepped back from each other as if they'd just been caught doing something wrong.

"You must be the boyfriend." The store associate who'd been previously helping Bird guessed giving Jim a wide smile as she added, "Congratulations on the new house!"

"Uh…" Jim stammered, at the same time Bird's eyes widened and she tried to say, "Oh, no he's not-"

"Now, I was just telling Bird about this new brand of paint we've got in that's going to cut your work, time and effort in half. It's a little more costly up front, but in the long run is going to save you money. It's a not just your paint, but also a base coat and primer all in one." She excitedly rambled on, leaving both Bird and Jim unable to clear up the case of mistaken identity as she launched into a speech about how the paint was stain resistant.

"Now that you've had a chance to look over some of the color options, if you're close to deciding a color, I could show you over to the selection we offer in store?" She offered to them, still wearing a bright smile on her face.

"No, actually-" Jim declined with a nervous chuckle at how an already uncomfortable situation had grown evermore awkward.

"That sounds great!" Bird exclaimed, beaming a smile just as bright as the worker and leaving Jim staring at her with a stunned expression.

Her smile fell some as she added, "Oh shoot, I just realized I left something out in the car." Laying a hand on Jim's arm, Bird smirked at him and said, "Honey, why don't you go check on the paints with her? I'll be right back."

With that she spun on her heels and walked away, laughing to herself as she heard the worker trying to lead Jim over to the tins of paint, while he was left to his own devices to clear up the situation Bird had left him in.

 **~(The next day)~**

"What did you do?" Harvey asked as he stepped into living room of the house he and Bird were having renovated and looked around the room to see different paint color swatch papers taped to the walls, in rows of three all around the room.

With a smile she walked over and raised up to kiss him, before she pulled back and said, "I gathered up all the colors I liked and wanted you to see them. We need to pick one."

Slowly turning in a circle he took in the sight again before blowing out a breath and questioning, "This isn't going to become a thing, right? I'm not going to come here and find six different couches you want me to pick from, right?"

Hitting his arm, she laughed, "No, it's just… this is _our_ house. We're supposed to decide stuff together." Pausing she turned to face him as she said, "And I figured we were going to use your living room furniture."

They both looked up when the hammering sound on the roof seemed to grow so loud they couldn't hear the thoughts in their own heads.

"Are we?" He yelled over the construction noise, "I was planning on selling mostly everything from my apartment, I just thought you'd want to move your furniture here."

"Yours is newer… less worn than mine." She shrugged, before asking, "Why did you think we'd bother moving mine?"

"It's just…" His voice trailed off and Bird yelled over the noise, "What?"

"It's just… I know how you are, you have to have things a certain way and you're really attached to nearly everything you own." He explained, trying to make the statement sound not so offensive to her.

"You're saying I'm a control freak?" Bird asked, still yelling to be heard over all the noise but just as she spoke there was a break from the loud hammering and her voice echoed throughout the first floor of the house and the couple looked over to see a pair of the men from the company they'd hired watching them as they stood holding a set of doors.

"Uh… we were going to replace the doors on the third floor, but we can come back." One of them said as he looked between Bird and Harvey.

"It's okay." Bird said nodding towards the stairs and Harvey offered a smile as he nodded in agreement that they were free to go about their business and do the job they'd been hired for.

Once they were out of sight, Harvey looked to Bird and said, "No, I'm not saying that. I just-"

"Know how I am?" She repeated his earlier words and held back a laugh at the expression on his face, like he really expected her to be angry with him.

"I guess we still have a lot to figure out." She finally shrugged, looking around them to the empty downstairs, "We just sort of jumped into this living together thing… didn't think it through much."

"I hope those aren't second thoughts you're having." Harvey said, as he rested his hands on her sides and pointed out, "It's a little too late to back out now."

With a soft smile she shook her head back and forth, "I'm not second guessing anything, I just think maybe we should have planned more before we actually bought a house."

"Are you kidding?" He joked, "We're lucky we got this place when we did –there had to be tons of other people just dying to snatch this little jewel up from the real-estate market."

With a laugh at his words, she ran her hands up his chest and across his shoulders before crossing her wrists behind his neck and leaning her body against his as she asked, "You're not having second thoughts either are you?"

"Never." He assured her, leaning in to kiss her as he promised, "I'm exactly where I want to be."

"Good!" Bird smiled, "Then let's pick a color because I don't care for white walls." Her jaw tensed as she spoke, white walls always made her think of hospitals and asylums.

"Okay." He nodded, smiling back at her as he added, "Our first big decision for the house… what color to paint the living room?"

He started to walk around the living room looking at all the different colors she'd pinned up, as Bird followed just steps behind him, eagerly awaiting what he had to say about the options she'd presented.

"No red." He stated, as he began plucking the paint strips he didn't like off the walls.

"Red could make it feel cozy and warm?" Bird shrugged, watching him closely.

Glancing over his shoulder at her, he argued, "All the red colors you picked out are all so dark they look angry –not cozy."

"Fair enough." She conceded before defending, "These were the only non-pastel shades of red they had."

"What about blue?" He suggested, coming to a stop near the patch of wall she'd taped several blue paint swatches to.

"Or green." She asked, with a hopeful smile as she grabbed his hand and pulled him over towards the fire place where she'd lovingly taped her favorite paint swatch –a beautiful green color.

"Or blue." He argued, trying to go back to the blue selection, but she kept a tight hold on his hand and argued back, "What about this green? It's got an earthy feel to it, you know? It looks alive."

"Mhmm… earthy…" He hummed, looking at her as he added, "Coming from the girl who's told me several times she can't even keep a plant alive."

Her brown eyes locked with his and she questioned, "What's wrong with this green?"

"Nothing." He admitted, "I just like the blue better."

"I have an idea!" Bird excitedly exclaimed, as she raised up and kissed him before pulling back and displaying the coin she'd lifted from his pocket and suggested, "Let's flip for it. Heads we paint it green and tails we'll go with blue."

Feeling his pocket and looking at her surprised, he asked, "How did you even get that?"

With a smirk she admitted, "Distracted you with a kiss."

He smiled at her and shook his head in disbelief before he said, "That's not fair, on so many different levels."

"Why? Because it's a two-headed coin?" Bird asked, keeping her eyes on him while she flipped the coin up into the air and caught it, before slapping it against the back of her other hand and not even looking down as she said, "What do you know? Heads it is."

Reaching for the coin he argued with a laugh, "That doesn't even count."

"Doesn't it though?" She asked moving her hand with the coin out of his reach and with an arched eyebrow she reminded him, "You tricked me into dating you, you know? You said heads we were meant to be and tails we'd part ways."

Leaning in he stopped just in front of her face as he quietly asked, "And aren't you happy it was heads though?"

Bird chuckled against his mouth when he tried to get the coin away from her when he kissed her, but she didn't give it up.

"I am." She admitted, her lips brushing against his before she pulled back and asked, "But what about that speech you gave me? About chance being one of the only decent things in the world?"

"I do believe that." He nodded, the expression on his face melting into a smile as he added, "But sometimes I think we should make our own luck and you were about to walk out on me that day."

Looking down to the coin she still had in her hand, she questioned, "You use this coin trick to get your way a lot?"

"I help people." He stated, trying again to get the coin away from her but her lightning fast reflexes made it impossible. With a small sigh he explained, "To help teenagers mostly with some of the cases I prosecute. A lot of them are just good kids who made a couple wrong decisions, sometimes all it takes is a little push; a little faith to get them back on track. So I'll tell them to pick heads or tails, if they guess right then it means someone is looking out for them." He continued, pointing towards the sky as he spoke.

"And they all pick heads?" She asked.

"Pretty much." He nodded, "People –especially teenagers almost always seem to pick heads, not sure why."

"That's sweet." She smiled, giving the coin another toss and effortlessly catching it before reminding him, "You picked for us though… why didn't you let me pick heads or tails?"

"You're a rebel." He stated, breaking into a small laugh as he admitted, "I had a feeling given the option you'd have picked tails."

She flipped the coin up into the air, but before it fell back into her hands Harvey quickly reached out and grabbed it from midair with a satisfied smile on his face. Tucking it back into his pocket he asked, "Honestly, if I'd told you to pick a side that day, what would you have said?"

Laying her hands on his chest, she looked up and her eyes locked with his as she admitted, "Tails… I always pick tails."

"See?" Harvey laughed, with his head cocked slightly to the side as he continued, "Had to make my own luck."

Reaching past her to the wall, he picked the green paint strip up she'd taped there and after staring at it for a while he gave in, "Okay, we'll go with the green."

With a wide smile, Bird plucked the strip from his hand and admitted, "Good, because I already told the painters we'd decided on the green earlier today."

Not giving him a chance to say anything, she raised up and planted a protest silencing kiss on his lips.

 **~(The next night)~**

"Hey!" A man called out and Bruce turned around to see who was talking to him, the man offered a less than friendly smile as he eyed the young teen's expensive clothing and commented, "You look far from home."  
His heart started to race in his chest and he took a few steps away from the man until he heard his sister's voice echo through the empty street as she said, "Leave him alone."

Bird stepped up beside her younger brother and gave the man an unwavering expression as she motioned with her hand and said, "Go on, get."

"Or you'll what?" He asked, stalking closer to the siblings.

Not flinching or seeming the least bit off put, Bird stepped protectively in front of her brother and said, "Oh, I don't know. I could see this playing out a few ways… you see we've got the river right there." Nodding to one of the metal trashcans with fire burning inside that street people often used to try and stay warm she continued, "Death by fire… or, there's always the really messy way." She finished, pulling a switchblade knife from her pocket and extending the razor sharp blade.

"Whatever!" He yelled, as he backed away from them before turning and jogging off in the other direction.

"Thank you." Bruce said, looking to his older sister with a saddened and scared look on his young face.

"What are you doing out here?" She asked, "You didn't tell me anything over the phone."

"You said if I was I trouble, that I could call you –no questions asked." Bruce reminded her.

Grabbing the sleeve of his jacket and pulling him over next to a wall of a collapsing building and out of sight from the road she nodded, "Yeah, I did say that… but I'm asking questions because you're out in the middle of Gotham City and it's nearly midnight."

"It's bad." Bruce admitted, his eyes getting glossy as he whispered, "It's really bad."

Looking him over she questioned, "Bad as in I need to kill someone?"

His eyes met hers and with a weak voice he admitted, "Starling, I can't tell if you're joking or not."

"Bruce, what happened?" She sighed.

"Alfred's friend, Mr. Payne… he's…" Bruce swallowed hard, "He's dead."

Taking a breath he blurted out, "Selina pushed him out of a five story window and we ran… I went back to check on him, but the police were already there and he… he's dead."

"What the hell were you even thinking? Running back into the city with Selina again?" She yelled, rubbing her forehead.

"I was thinking that Alfred almost died and that all my research on Wayne Enterprises disappeared that same night. I was thinking that I needed answers and-"

"Yeah?" Bird cut him off, "Well you should have been thinking that you should have taken those concerns to your older sister. That instead of going to Selina for help, you should have called me… before someone ended up dead."

"I didn't mean for it to happen!" He defended, his breathing labored as he replayed the entire night over and over in his head.

"Okay." Bird breathed, laying her hands on his shoulders and asked, "First things first… were there any witnesses?"

"What-"

"Did anyone see you, Bruce? Can anyone name you as an accomplice to what happened?"

Seeing the look on her face he asked in a shaky tone, "W-Why? What are you going to do?"

"I'll do what I have to-to keep you safe, to keep your name out of this. Now answer me, did anyone see you?" Bird repeated.

"I don't think so." He finally said, "It was at a place they called a shooting gallery-"

"So everyone was pretty much too far gone to know what was happening around them?" She breathed with a sigh of relief.

He gave a frantic nod as he said in an exasperated tone, "I just wanted some answers."

"Well, did you get them?" Bird asked.

"Yes." He said, "He was hired by Wayne Enterprises, specifically by-" Bruce started to say but his sister cut him off, "By Bunderslaw?"

"How did you know?" Bruce questioned.

"Because I had my own recent run in with Reggie, just a few days ago and guess what? I got what I needed out of him and managed to not kill anyone." Bird harshly said, letting the fear that something could have happened to her brother drive her to anger.

"I'm sorry." He breathed, "He'd told me what we needed to know, but then he got mad because Selina dropped his bag of drugs out of the window and he threatened to go back to Bunderslaw and tells on us. H-he said that once they knew we were onto them, they'd come after the both of us and when he leaned out to get the bag… Selina pushed him."

Blinking back tears Bruce remembered, "He yelled… screamed all the way until he hit the ground and then… silence."

"Yeah…" Bird breathed, "Death has a way of shutting people up." Looking around to make sure no one had been watching them she said, "We need to get out of here."

Once they were safely in her car with the heat on high, Bird drove a few streets over from Wayne Manor and let the car idle as she looked at him and asked, "You alright?"

"Not really." He admitted, taking a deep breath before repeating, "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"It's over now." Bird softly said, "He's gone and nothing can fix that now. You know you're going to have to tell Alfred what happened, maybe not tonight… but soon."

"I can't…" Bruce breathed.

"You can and you will." She argued, "You have too because if you don't it's going to eat away at you. Not only does Alfred deserve to know, but you have to tell him the truth for yourself. You're not the kind of person who can live with those deep dark secrets."

Looking at her and thinking of everything she'd told him, and all he knew about her he asked, "But you can?"

"Yes." She quietly said, taking a deep breath as she leaned back against the headrest and said, "Reggie had to die, Bruce."

When she had his attention, she thought out loud, "If whatever the hell the two of you did to him, to make him angry enough he was going to tell Wayne Enterprises that you were onto them about everything, then he had to be eliminated."

"You really believe that?" Bruce whispered, turning in his seat to get a better look at her.

"I think that sometimes the world is better off with some people not in it and because of what happened, your world is better and safer without Reggie in it."

Looking at her he asked, "And when you asked about witnesses to what happened… were you planning on killing them if there were any."

When she didn't answer he questioned, "Starling?"

"What do you want, Bruce?" She heavily sighed as she spoke, "You want the hard pill to swallow answer, or the candy coated one that's going to make it easier for you to sleep at night?"

Slowly he turned his head and stared out of the front widow of his sister's car and swallowed hard as he said in a voice that shook with his uneven breathing, "I think I'd like to go home now."

 **~(The next week)~**

"Thank you for joining me." Don Falcone said as Bird took a seat at the table with him in the dining room of his mansion.

"Of course." Bird said managing a smile as she politely said, "Thank you for inviting me."

Motioning to one of his wait staff standing near the door to bring the food in, he looked to Bird and commented with a smile, "I hope you're hungry."

As their food was brought out and set in front of them, she nodded, "It looks delicious."

A few minutes passed in silence with both of them starting to eat their dinner and Bird waited impatiently for him to talk, but he didn't say anything.

Taking a drink from her glass, she cleared her throat and asked, "What was it you wanted to speak to me about?"

"Business can wait until we're finished eating, don't you agree?" He questioned, watching her closely as he spoke.

"With all due respect, sir… it seems like everything with you is business." Bird quietly said, avoiding his eyes as she spoke.

"Yes, I imagine it does." He agreed with a small laugh, appearing happy to have her back to where she felt comfortable to speak her mind.

They made small talk while they ate, he told her how Oswald's club was doing much better now; profits were up and guests were happy again. They talked about the weather and all of the recent snow that had blanketed the city in white and for a moment Bird found herself feeling comfortable around him –like she used to be before her betrayals came to light.  
That was until he changed the topic of conversation.

"You've recently moved, correct?" He questioned between bites of his food, "Purchased a house with Harvey Dent?"

All of the food on her stomach started to sour and she couldn't bring herself to take another bite as she stared at him.

"Is there a problem?" Falcone questioned, seeing the look on her face.

Laying her fork down on the glass plate with a clink, she admitted, "The problem is the last time you brought up Harvey to me, I left here to find out he was in the hospital-"

"Yes." He said, cutting her off midsentence, "An unfortunate incident, but as I warned you before that –actions have consequences and my dear, you had stepped way out of line."

"I have done everything you have asked of me since then; I've done my job perfectly." She defended, unable to sit still in her seat any longer as she continually readjusted and nervously tapped the toe of her shoes against the floor under the table.

"You can relax." Falcone assured her, "I was only making conversation."

"You didn't have him hurt again?" Bird asked, swallowing hard as she spoke.

"No." He answered, "You have my word."

Nodding, she had no choice other than to accept his answer at face value; silently she vowed to herself that if he had sent anyone after Harvey again she'd kill Falcone herself the first chance she got.

"Is it a nice house?" He questioned.

"It will be." Bird nodded as she spoke, "There's a lot of work it needs to get up to code for us to actually move in, but we've got people on the job nearly around the clock. Probably just a few more weeks before we can start moving in."

"It sounds lovely." He smiled, and she again shifted uncomfortably before getting the courage to ask, "Is it customary to keep such close tabs on all the people who work for you?"

"Why do you ask?"

Bird's eyes widened slightly, but she quickly covered the expression and decided yet again to try a semi-honest approach with him; it always seemed to fare the best.

"I was only wondering –at times it just feels like you've taken a special interest in me and I'm not entirely sure why." Bird admitted.

With a nod, Falcone explained, "I keep a closer watch on a select few. You do happen to be one of them."

"Why me?" Bird questioned, but she didn't get an answer as Falcone told her to try the soup, and went back to making small talk for the rest of dinner.

After they'd eaten and relocated to one of the sitting rooms, Bird looked around before taking a seat in one of the plush chairs and questioning, "Now it's time for business?"

"Yes, it is." He nodded, walking over to the small cart with expensive bottles of liquor against the wall. When he held up one the clear glass bottles, she held up her hand and shook her head from side to side, "None for me thanks."

After he'd poured himself a drink and sat down across from her he said, "I'm happy with how well you've done working with Victor, you've really embraced everything about the job and exceeded my expectations."

"Thank you." Bird smiled, glancing around before she said, "You're not going to ask me to take over the club again, are you?"

"No." He laughed, looking down to the light amber liquid in his glass as he let out a heavy breath and added, "But, I do think it's time to see how you'd fare with other tasks and responsibilities."

"Like what?" She cautiously asked.

"I want you to work for me, directly under me. I think it would be good for you to see how things are ran and-"

"No thank you." Bird declined, "I'd like to continue working with Victor."

"You didn't even let me finish." He complained, giving her a harsh stare.

Pulling in a breath he leaned forward in his chair some, "There are many different kinds of people in the world, but you see… when it comes down to it, there are two main types –those who take orders and those who give them. As you said to me before, you're not a hired gun." Taking a drink and letting his words sink in he continued, "You've done well with contract killings and other work, but I think we both know that thinking in long-term… that work is beneath you."

Catching the glint of anger in her eyes as she diverted her gaze to the floor he questioned, "Something to say?"

Not able to stop herself, she thought of how he also often spoke of Oswald as if he were a lesser person and Bird shrugged, "You just seem to look down on an awful lot of people, Don Falcone. You're polite and respectful, of course… but you do look down on people."

"Comes with the territory, I suppose." He admitted with a small shrug of his own, "To rule this city, to do the things I need to do, I have to carry myself a certain way."

"Fish Mooney was right about one thing –that Gotham needs a change, this city needs something other than what I've been giving it. I told you before I'm no fool, I see the way of the world is changing and it's no secret that I'm having trouble keeping up. But she was wrong for thinking she was the one to bring that change about." Don Falcone spoke with a somber tone, as he stood up and walked over to the window taking a long look around the perfectly landscaped side yard, before raising the glass to his lips and taking another drink, appreciating the smooth heat from the expensive liquor.

"Sir?" Bird asked, also standing from where she had been sitting as she let out a nervous laugh and said, "I'm sorry, but it almost sounds like you're hinting at me being the one to take over."

"Why do you think I want you to start working directly under me?" He asked, not looking back to her as he spoke, "Not only for you to see how things are run, but to get everyone of importance used to your face and presence. Bird, I have many enemies waiting to rise up when the day comes that I either step away or die and that is why I need a plan in place, if the power I hold falls into the wrong hands than there will be complete and utter chaos –I have no doubt the foundations of this city will fall to ruin."

"It doesn't make any sense." Bird admitted, stepping closer as she asserted, "In the grand scheme of things, in this crime family –I am a nobody. You have people working under you who have been with you for over thirty years-"

"Yes, and many of them have turned on me –fueled by greed and a thirst for power, but as I've said before there are two types of people and they all function better following given orders than being trusted to make their own decisions." He said, turning to face her as he spoke in a confident tone, "You on the other hand, you're made of something different entirely. You're brave, strong and intelligent. Bird, you have a strength inside of you that I've seen in less than a handful of men in my entire life –you have a true greatness."

"You're serious about this." She breathed, her eyebrows knotted like the full weight of his words were finally landing on her.

"I wouldn't be wasting my time and breath if I wasn't." He pointed out.

"I'm flattered, but Don Falcone… I can't do what you do." Bird argued.

"You still have a long way to go, but-"

"Not now, not ever… I can't be what you are." Bird argued, silencing him before she took in a deep breath and explained, "Despite being something created by Fish, you really did care about Liza. I could see it and she was starting to adore you… and I stood there and watched you kill her with your bare hands. I understand business is business, but when it comes to friends and family…" Her voice trailed off and she shrugged, hating to show weakness in front of anyone.

"That was the ultimate betrayal." He defended, sounding indifferent on the matter when he added, "Business always comes first."

"Yeah?" She scoffed, "Well, I can't do that. I tried to be like that, but when it comes to people I care about… the lines between business and emotion blur."

"You're still young." He nodded, "But I have faith in you… you're more capable than you know."

"May I speak openly?" She finally asked, eyeing him as she spoke.

He nodded and Bird asked, "What happened to you? You see, I went through something traumatic as a teenager… something that almost broke me and I haven't been the same since. There are times when I'm emotionless, completely apathetic at times and I don't really remember being that way before I was attacked. It seems to me that the people who can so easily disconnect from their feelings are the ones who have been hurt in ways that most can't understand."

"We've all experienced tragedy; some just seem to get more than their fair share." He simply replied, but the answer wasn't good enough for Bird.

"I heard some rumors." She softly said, "Rumors that you had a family once. I've heard of a son and years later a baby who… died."

"Well…" He cleared his throat and sighed, "Most rumors do start with a heart of truth and like I said…" He breathed looking her over as he spoke, "Everyone goes through tragedies."

"You just…" Bird shook her head, "You know so much about everyone and no one really seems to know much about you. And I don't understand why the hell you'd pick me to fill your shoes when you have a son out there."

"I do have a son." He nodded, a proud look in his eyes as she explained, "A son who was raised outside of organized crime. I'd made a promise to my wife that Mario wouldn't get caught up in my life, pulled into underworld affairs and that was a promise I kept."  
He paused for a brief moment before adding, "He's a doctor now. I couldn't be more proud."

"The baby you lost-" Bird started to push, feeling like since he'd opened up a little to her that she'd try to her luck to find out more, but he cut her off.

"Take a few more weeks of working with Victor, if you'd like." Falcone suggested, choosing to not speak on what she'd asked him about much more than he already had, "After that, you'll start working with me."

"So I don't really have a choice in this?" She scoffed, feeling like a weight was pressing down against her chest and slowly forcing all the air from her lungs.

Setting his now empty glass down on the decorative table by the window he continued, "Winston Churchill said it best; The price of greatness is responsibility."

"I don't get it." Bird admitted lingering by the doorway she was about to leave through, "Underneath everything, I think you're sad… that you feel empty. You hide it well, but sometimes equally broken people can see it in others. The life you made for yourself hasn't brought you happiness and knowing where that road leads, you want to force me down the same path? Out of everyone who actually wants to step up and fill your shoes, you're picking me… it's like you want to damn me."

"My dear…" He said, walking closer to her and with a saddened look in his eyes he said, "The darkness of this city gets inside of some more than others, it burrows under the skin and no matter how hard you try, you can't escape it. It's almost like a select few are born with it in their blood and I can see it in you, the same as I see it in the mirror. You're already damned."

* * *

 **A/N - Thanks for reading! I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update. I'm in the process of moving into a new place (while being sick no-less -.-),but I'm going to try to keep up with updating the best I can and am hoping to be all moved and settled by early next year.**

 **A big thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Melody Jane, Miss E Charlotte, NeedaMoment,** **FanFictionGirl19981 and to guest for reviewing the last chapter.**

 **As always you can find me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent) ^_^**


	47. Someone Like Him

**XLVII**

" _People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of."_ _― Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch_ _of the West_

* * *

"I love the house." Bird argued, as she and Barbara got onto the elevator in Barbara's apartment building.

Readjusting the garment bags in her arms, the blonde shook her head back and forth as she said, "It's a mess."

"That's because it's still being renovated!" Bird argued with a laugh before reminding her, "And you are the one who wanted to go see it."

"I'm just saying I don't know how I feel about it yet." She asserted, with a shrug, "Take me back when it's all finished and I'll know for sure then."

Trying her best to keep a smile on her face, Barbara said, "You seem happy, are you happy?"

"I'm guess so. I mean… this is the dream right? I got the guy and got the house..." Bird nodded as they stepped off the elevator on her friend's floor while Barbara fought against the overwhelming feeling of her own heartache as she said, "Then I'm happy for you."

"You know you don't have to go to this thing; if you want I'll tell Harvey I don't feel like going and me and you can find something fun to do. Take your mind off things." Bird suggested, the truth was she didn't feel much like attending the Wayne Charity Ball either. Ever since her last conversation with Carmine Falcone she'd barely been able to sleep.

"You have to go, you're a Wayne." Barbara said with a laugh as she juggled all the bags in her hands and fought to get her door unlocked, "Besides, I just spent a fortune on this ball gown and shoes. Maybe I'll feel better getting out tonight –you know, the whole look better and feel better thing."

"Pretty sure that's a myth, B." Bird said in an empathetic tone as she laid the bag with her dress over a table and turned to her friend who sighed, "Yeah, probably… but screw it, right? I don't need a date to go to a gala, plus there aren't a lot of people that get invited to this one."

"True." Bird agreed, unable to stop the smile that spread over her lips as she admitted, "I picked out my dress months ago. Normally I hate going to these things, but this year I…" Her voice trailed off and Barbara said, "You have a date who you love spending time with. It's okay, we can talk about your relationship. I'm not going to shatter into pieces over thinking what I lost when I walked out on Jim."

Bird slowly nodded, before her eyebrows raised and she guessed, "You're hoping by chance you might run into him tonight, aren't you?"

"I will get him back." Barbara asserted in a tone of voice that caught Bird a little off guard.

Side-eyeing Barbara out of the corner of her eye, Bird let out a small laugh and commented, "Careful, B. You're sorta starting to sound like ' _if you can't have him then no one will'_ it's unsettling."

"We're meant to be together." Barbara said, before looking to Bird as she asked, "How would you feel if you were in my shoes –if this was your situation with Harvey.

"I love him and I want him to be happy." Bird said, avoiding the disbelieving look on her friends face before she finally sighed, "Fine, truth is… I wouldn't handle it well and I'd probably be having some of those ' _if I can't have him then neither can anyone else'_ feelings."

"See?" Barbara said with a satisfied nod, "Love makes people crazy."

Bird eyed her friend and thought to herself that apparently it made some crazier than others, but then again she was still plotting Falcone's slow and painful death for having Harvey hurt –so maybe she was just as crazy.

Walking down the stairs Selena looked between them and asked, "What's all that?" As she nodded to all of the shopping bags.

"For the Wayne Charity Ball." Barbara said, unzipping her garment bag to show off part of her dress as she continued, "It's boring, but good for the art gallery's business… so this year I'm chalking it up to a business move."

"Then I'll probably see you there." Selina commented, reaching out and trailing her fingers over the fabric of the dress as she added, "I'm going with Bruce Wayne."

"Wait, what?" Barbara exclaimed looking to Bird as she questioned, "Did you know about this, B?"

"I did not." Bird admitted, eyeing the young teenager as she said, "Of course, I really haven't spoken to my brother since I had to go out in the middle of the night to pick him up from the city."

Selina's eyes widened slightly before she looked away and commented, "I'm hungry." But when she started for the kitchen there was a knock on the door and she went to answer it.

" _Delivery for Selina Kyle."_

Able to hear the delivery man from the room they were in, Bird and Barbara exchanged looks and hurried for the door to see what was happening.

The trio watched in shock as the first delivery man was followed by two more, each of them with their arms full of shopping bags and boxes from Gotham's most expensive stores.

Reaching into a bag Selina pulled out a pair of strappy high-heels and turned to face the pair of friends as she asked with an almost repulsed expression on her face, "Am I really supposed to wear these?"

"Okay…" Barbara breathed looking the leather-clad teenager over she blew out a sigh and said, "We have some work to do."

Nodding, Bird helped her gather up the bags as she agreed, "A lot of work to do, come on." She nodded for Selina to follow them up the stairs.

With heavy footsteps she followed them and complained, "Really? I have to wear those shoes?"

"Selina, you can keep balance walking along the edge of a thin metal fence on a balcony ten stories up, you can walk in a pair of heels." Bird called over her shoulder and Selina dropped her head back and let out a loud groan.

Once they got her seated in front of the large vanity, they both got to work on helping her fix up her hair and make-up for the ball.

"I have the perfect hair band to go with the dress we decided on." Barbara exclaimed, disappearing into her large walk in closet as she called over her shoulder, "It's accented with real pink diamonds."

Once the blonde was out of sight, Selina looked to Bird who was busy at work selecting the perfect pallet of eyeshadows for her.

"You know don't you?" Selina quietly asked.

"Close your eyes." Bird instructed as she located the right shades to compliment her skin tone and the dress.

With a sigh, she did as she was told, but repeated, "The night you went into the city to pick Bruce up-"

"Yeah, I know." Bird stated as she cut her off, "You shouldn't have done it, but I understand why you did."

Opening her eyes back up Selina quietly admitted, "I pushed him to save our lives… but Bruce doesn't understand that."

"Close your eyes." Bird sighed, "I still have to get myself ready for tonight, we're running on limited time here."

Seeing the expression on Selina's face, Bird waited until her eyes were closed and she was back to doing her eyeshadow before she spoke, "Look, my brother saw you push someone to their death and still asked you to be his date tonight –I think he probably understands it more than you think. He's just shaken up is all, but he clearly still likes you-"

"No!" Selina cut her off, "It's not even really a date, it's not like that, it's…" She stopped when she heard Bird start to laugh and she cracked an eye open to look at her, squinting in anger as she did.

"It is exactly like that, you don't have to try and hide it." Bird argued, with a wide smile, before she asked, "Is he coming here to pick you up?"

"Yes." Selina admitted, her face tense as she fought against a smile of her own, before she quickly ducked away from the mascara wand Bird was bringing towards her eye.

"Relax." Bird laughed.

"You could take someone's eye out with that thing." Selina complained.

With a smirk Bird hummed, "Mhmm… so you better hold perfectly still."

"Ta-da!" Barbara dramatically called out as she stepped out of the closet with the silver head band, adorned with pink diamonds and a flower shape center piece.

Stepping up behind Selina, she placed it on her head, centering it perfectly and adjusting the teen's curls around it. Laying her hands on Selina's shoulder she reminded her of something she told her before, "See? Like I said, remove the dirt and lose the denim and leather and you're turning into a beautiful young woman."

"I am not." Selina argued, sighing and trying to act irritated by the attention and all the fussing Barbara and Bird were doing over her, but inside she was smiling for several reasons.  
She'd never had anyone to do this for her before, with her hair and make-up all fixed up and the expensive dress and jewelry choices Bruce had sent for her that night –she almost felt like a princess.

Looking down with a saddened look in her eyes she tried to remind herself to not get too attached to the feeling. She'd only been invited to the ball so that he could make a copy of the key to the safe in Bunderslaw's office. Tomorrow things would go back to normal, all the make-up and hair product washed away and no more reasons to get dressed up.  
Trying to look on the brightside, she guessed that all the different jewelry she'd been given would go for a pretty penny out on the streets.

"You are too." Bird smiled, patting her on the arm as she said, "Okay, time to learn how to walk in heels."

With a loud, dramatic groan Selina stood up to face them as she asked, "Do I have too?"

"Yes!" Both Bird and Barbara yelled in unison, and Selina lowered her head to fight the smile on her lips as they pulled her over to where they'd thrown the bag with shoes on the foot of the bed.

It was nearly an hour later that there was a knock on the door and Barbara went downstairs to answer the door.

"Hello." Bruce greeted when she opened the door, extending a hand he said, "I'm Bruce Wayne."

Shaking his hand, she smiled as she introduced herself, "I'm Barbara Kean."

"Oh…" He realized, "Selina never said you're who she's staying with. Detective Gordon spoke of you."

The smile fell from her lips and she swallowed hard, trying not to think about Jim, she said, "Well, Selina can be a little guarded."

"Yes, I know." He said with a laugh as she stepped to the side and let him into her apartment.

"Stop talking about me." Selina complained as she walked into the room. Holding her arms out to the side she spun around and couldn't deny how much she loved the way the soft layers of the dress felt as they moved with her before falling back against her legs.

"Selina… you…" He stammered, at a sudden loss for words, "You, uh, you look very nice."

"The shoes hurt." She complained with a frown.

"Stop complaining." Bird said as she joined them in the room and with a smile added, "At least you're not falling in them anymore."

"That was one time!" Selina exclaimed, with a smile as she looked over at her.

"It was a couple times." Barbara reminded her, with a laugh of her own.

Bruce looked at his sister with a shocked expression as he said, "I didn't know you were going to be here."

"She's my new best friend." Barbara said with a smile.

"Oh." Bruce said, smiling back. Feeling like he was starting to get a glimpse into how his sister was changing her ways and choosing friends that weren't criminals. It gave him more hope that maybe she hadn't fallen as far as he'd previously thought.

"Alfred is in the car downstairs." He said, looking to Selina as he suggested, "We should go."

"After this!" Bird said as she displayed a camera and her brother looked at her with wide eyes.

"No!" Selina groaned, as Bird pushed her towards her brother and said, "Smile!"

"Are you really making us do this?" Bruce asked, through his teeth as he smiled and felt his cheeks darken.

"She is." Barbara said, as she stepped to the side so she wouldn't ruin any shots of the young couple.

"It's your first real date and you look so cute in your little tux-" Bird started to explain, but he cut her off as he said, "Starling!"  
He was now at a complete loss as to when and how his older sister turned into someone who cooed over him and felt the need to document parts of his life through pictures.

"Shut up and smile." She smirked snapping a few pictures of them as she said, "The first dance I went to with a date, mom made us pose for pictures. It's embarrassing, I get it… but it's a rite of passage. You're growing up-"

"Please just stop talking." He pleaded with her as she snapped another picture.

"Smile, Selina." Barbara instructed, but the teenager stubbornly shook her head back and forth.

"We just spent two hours getting you ready for tonight." Barbara reminded her and Bird nodded, "So smile."

A few painfully embarrassing minutes and several pictures later, Bird finally lowered the camera and said, "Okay, now go. I still have to get ready for the ball too and it's about to start."

With a proud smile on her face she shooed the teenagers out of the apartment with both her and Barbara saying that they'd see them there later on and Bruce calling over his shoulder that it was nice to meet her.

Shutting the door to the apartment, Bird leaned back against it with a smile as she said, "They're so cute."

"They really are." Barbara smiled, before commenting, "Your brother looks a lot like you."

"Yeah." Bird laughed with a dismissive hand wave, "I've heard that a lot and it's sorta funny, cause I was adopted."

"Oh." Barbara exclaimed, "Well you do look alike."

Ignoring the comment, Bird asked, "Hey, it's okay if Harvey picks me up from here, right? I've got everything I need to get ready here and it would take too long to get back to my apartment-"

"Of course." She smiled, "I can't wait to meet him."

"Thanks." Bird said as she quickly walked for the stairs to get ready for the night.

Barbara kept the smile on her face until Bird was out of sight, letting out a breath she breathed, "Funny, it's my apartment everyone is getting picked up from and I don't even have a date."

 **~()~**

"What?" Bird questioned as she and Harvey entered the ball room where they were holding the Wayne Charity Ball.

With his arm already slid around her waist, he pulled her closer against him and said, "I just never thought I'd be attending the charity ball. Only an elite group of people score an invite for this."

"Yeah, all of Gotham's high society elites along with some people who make contributions that are upwards of ten thousand." Bird nodded, looking up to Harvey as she asked, "Did you know it's even hard for employees of Wayne Enterprises to get into this?"

Harvey blew out a breath and shook his head at her words and he looked around noticing several sets of eyes on them and glanced at his side to Bird who didn't seem notice all of the attention.

"It's weird." She softly said, leaning against him as she spoke, "It's my family's company throwing this and somehow I still feel a little out of place." Mustering a smile she added, "Hopefully this turns out better than the last company sponsored event we went too."

His eyes drifted up towards the ceiling and he joked, "So far no sign of viper being pushed through the air vents."

Letting out a small laugh she slid out of his arm and turned to face him, looking at him from under her dark coated lashes as she straightened his tie and smoothed out the lapels of his suit, she smiled, "I really love this suit on you."

With a smile of his own he reached out and tilted her face up as he leaned down and kissed her, leaning her body against his the rest of the room started to melt away until there was a loud camera shutter from right next to them and a flash of light so bright it stunned them both even through their closed eyelids.

Blinking they both looked to the side where one of the reporters covering the event gave them a smile and turned to walk away.

"Oh my god…" Bird breathed, raising a hand and rubbing her forehead and Harvey looked around them before admitting, "Okay, that is going to take some getting used to."

"Well good luck." Bird remarked, "A few years out of the spotlight and I'm still trying to get used to it again." Glancing up at him she asked, "What paper do you think he was from."

"I have no idea." Harvey shrugged, looking around the room he spoke, feeling like his picture could be taken again at any second without warning.

Becoming further aware her surroundings she realized, "They're all staring."

"Maybe it has something to do with how amazing you look in that dress." His smile grew as he spoke and his eyes traveled over her as he asked, "Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?"

"A few times." She beamed a smile back at him as she looked down to the black dress she'd picked for that night. It was a black strapless gown with a layered, drape effect tiered silk-chiffon skirt.

When she looked back up, her eyes drifted around them to where they were still being watched. Smiling and waving to a few faces she recognized, she turned back to Harvey and said, "It's like their waiting for us to do a trick or something."

Extending his hand he questioned, "Would you care to dance, Miss Wayne?"

Biting down on the inside of her cheek she watched him, thinking to herself that she didn't care how many pictures the reporters got of her or if people kept staring at her like she was something on display in a museum –none of it mattered as long as she had him with her.

"I thought you'd never ask, Mr. Dent." She replied, as she placed her hand in his and let out a surprised laugh when he pulled her closer and then spun her around.

They spent the rest of the ball dancing, getting their pictures taken and rubbing elbows with Gotham's elite. Bird also kept an eye on her little brother and Selina, who also appeared to be having a good time with each other and she'd even spotted Barbara dancing with a man from across the room. It seemed to be a good night for everyone, Bird thought.

As the crowd started to thin and the end of the ball drew near, Bird went to retrieve their coats from where they'd checked their belongings at the door while Harvey was saying goodbye to a few acquaintances he'd ran into as they were making their way out of the ballroom.

"Here you go." The woman managing the room with everyone's belongings said as she handed over their coats and Bird's handbag.

"Thank you." She politely replied, as she stepped over to the side of the counter to wait on her boyfriend.

Draping the coats over the counter, she laid her small purse on top and planned on checking her phone for any messages when she felt something through the fabric of Harvey's coat. Glancing over to make sure he was still talking and not watching her, she slid her hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a small black box.

Her eyes widened and her fingers shook a little as she slowly opened the box to reveal a beautiful white gold engagement ring with a large oval shaped center piece diamond surrounded by two rows of smaller diamonds that stretched around the sides of the band. As she pulled the ring from the box to get a better look at it, she saw that with the way the white gold and diamonds were set along the sides was in a braided design. It was the single most beautiful piece of jewelry she could ever remember seeing.

Her breath caught in her throat as she quickly pushed the band of the ring back into the cut out of the black silk covered padding in the bottom of the ring box and returned the box to his coat pocket with the realization starting to fully hit her that he was planning to ask her to marry him.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been standing there when Harvey finally found her with an apology, "Sorry, I kept trying to walk away, but they just kept talking…" His voice trailed off when she turned around to face him and he saw the look on her face. "Are you okay?" He questioned.

"Yeah." She quickly answered trying to compose herself, though her heart was still racing in her chest like she'd ran a marathon.

"What happened?" He asked, eyeing her as he spoke.

"I'm just ready to get out of here is all." She said, giving him a smile as she added, "I'm so tired of having my picture taken."

"I hear you." He agreed, grabbing his coat up off the counter and pulling it on, before helping her slide into her own as he said, "Let's get out of here."

Smiling she nodded, but as they were walking out she checked her phone to see she had several missed calls from Oswald and some texts saying he needed to speak with her immediately.

Realizing Bird wasn't walking with him anymore, he turned around to see her standing in place staring at her phone.

"Starling?" He questioned.

"I need you to drop me off at my car." Bird said, looking up to him with a worried look on her face.

"Why?" He questioned walking over to her and starting to look down at her phone but she quickly flipped it shut and admitted, "I need to help a friend with something."

"Which friend?" He asked, even though he was pretty sure he already knew which one.

"A friend." She repeated, and he blew out a heavy breath as he asked, "Let me take a guess… Cobblepot?"

"He's my friend, Harvey." She defended, her eyes narrowing slightly as she whisper yelled at him.

"He kissed you!" He whisper yelled back at her with a darkness starting to take over the look in his eyes.

"I thought we were past that." Bird said with a hurt expression as she reminded him, "You said you forgave me."

"I have." He assured her, "I forgave _you_ , but I still don't like you being around him." Pulling in a breath he added, "He's a bad person and he has this way of twisting your thoughts up-"

"I know it's difficult to understand, but he is my friend… my best friend and I've got about twenty missed calls from him-"

"So you just drop everything and run to him?"

"That's the kind of friendship we've got, we're always there when the other one needs us."

Harvey took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to keep a handle on his anger and not lash out at her. Finally exhaling, he looked at her and admitted, "I don't like it."

"I know." She nodded with an empathetic expression, "But you love me and you trust me, right?"

"You know I do." He softly said while rubbing his hands down her sides and resting them on her hips when he stepped closer to her.

Raising up she kissed him before pulling back and pleading, "Then trust me on this."

Harvey slowly nodded, thinking to himself that she wasn't the problem. He trusted her; but his problem was with Oswald.  
It wasn't just that he'd kissed her, it was that he'd waiting until Bird was in such a vulnerable place when he did. He'd taken advantage of her and that made Harvey see a world painted red with rage when he thought about him.

 **~()~**

Bird's chest felt like there was a hummingbird trying to break free from her ribcage as she slowly walked alongside a thick blood smear on the floor that started right outside of the apartment Oswald shared with his mother.

Her arms were tense at her sides and she was mentally prepared for something to jump out and scare her at any minute and she found herself praying that the blood didn't belong to her best friend.

Just around the corner she saw the bloody drag marks lead to a janitorial closet and before she could talk herself out of it she whipped the door open and startled Oswald as he was trying to wrap the body of the flower delivery guy in sheets of plastic from a large roll he'd found.

Scrambling up, he grabbed onto the large shard of glass he'd killed the man with and pointed it at her before blowing a sigh of relief and starring at her with his sweat greased hair plastered to his forehead.

Laying the glass back down, he breathed a sigh of relief, "Bird, oh thank goodness it's you." Nodding to the bloody corpse on the floor he was out of breath as he added, "I'm currently in dire need of some assistance."

"You don't say." She breathed, looking back at him with her face twisted in emotion as she admitted, "You scared the hell out of me, you know. The blood started right outside of your apartment and…" Her voice trailed off and she shook the thoughts from her head.

Pushing the sleeves up on her coat she said, "I'll finish getting him wrapped up so we can move the body, you should get started on cleaning up the blood in the hall."

Nodding in thanks, he still struggled to get his breath as he opened a metal cabinet of chemical cleaners and started retrieving the bottles he'd need to clean up the large mess he'd made, before anyone stumbled upon it.

It was close to thirty minutes later when they were struggling to carry the body down the back service stairs of the building down to where she'd backed her car up to.

"Stop, stop, stop." She huffed, unintentionally letting go of the plastic wrapped body as she fought for her breath and leaned against the railing. With the full weight of the dead man's corpse now solely in Oswald's hands, the plastic slid from his hands and the pair watched as the plastic bundle rolled the rest of the way down the flight of stairs.

"Perfect!" Oswald angrily said, shooting Bird a look as he did.

"Would you just relax? He's got several layers of plastic around him and then black trash bags on top of that, I doubt any blood is going to seep out."

Rubbing his sweaty forehead Oswald leaned against the wall behind him and reminded her, "These stairs are frequented, we need to get him out of here."

"Yes, but Oswald I'm tired, I've been dancing all night and in case you hadn't realized I'm doing this in heels and an evening gown!" She snapped at him.

Swallowing hard he nodded, "I noticed." Pausing for a moment to look her over again he gave her a small smile as he admitted, "You look even more beautiful than usual, Bird."

"Yeah, well I should." She weakly laughed, "You don't even want to know how much this dress cost."

Taking in a deep breath, she slowly let it out as she closed her eyes and breathed, "Screw it."

Grabbing onto the expensive silk fabric of the skirt of the dress, she ripped it father up the side and then began to tear it across until she'd ripped it off just above her knees so she could move around easier.

His eyes widened as he watched her tearing apart the expensive dress and kick her shoes off.  
She hung the straps of her shoes on the torn off fabric and tied it at the top, so she wouldn't lose them, slinging the fabric holding the high-heels over her shoulder like a purse strap she nodded, "Okay, let's do this."

Hobbling down the stairs after her, Oswald grabbed onto one end of the plastic wrapped bundle of a body and Bird lift the other. After making it down another flight of stairs, they finally were able to load the body into the trunk of her car and after gathering some chain and heavy blocks, they drove to the dock.

Working in just the moonlight, the friends secured the chains to the blocks and the body, before pushing the man's body into the water and watching it sink below the surface.

Sweating from all of the lifting and carrying they'd done, Bird took in a deep breath of the air and sat down along the docks edge as she stared out over the dark water and asked, "You wanna tell me why you killed a flower delivery man?"

Oswald sat down next to her, struggling to catch his breath with a smile on his face at how she'd waited until the mess and evidence was gone before she'd ever questioned him.

"Maroni came by the club earlier tonight, when mother was there." He admitted, glancing over to Bird as he explained, "That's why I was trying to reach you."  
His gaze fell to his lap and his eyes closed as he remembered the look on his mother's face and gritted his teeth, "He told her… uh, he told her that she'd given birth to a cold-blooded psychopath… a monster."

"What?" Bird gasped, looking over to him.

Nodding Oswald continued, "He told her how I killed Frankie Carbone and…" With a small shrug he continued, "She was so shaken that I needed Gabe's assistance to get her home."

"Then he sent my mother flowers…" He hissed, looking down to the wooden dock they were sitting on as he said in a quieter voice, "I hadn't intended to kill the delivery man."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Oswald said in a trembling tone, "I've never seen her like that before, the look in her eyes when she asked if what Don Maroni said was true."

With a ragged breath he recalled, "She said; ' _Oswald I am your mother and I will love you no matter what, but lie to me now and you'll break my heart_.' She asked me if I'd done things I shouldn't and I…" Tears burnt his eyes as he whispered, "Well, how does one look someone they love in the eyes and admit that all the horror stories are true. I believe the truth would have only broken her heart worse."

"But she knows." He sighed, his teary eyes focused on the water of the river, "She knew Maroni was right."

Linking her arm with his, she leaned against his side with her head on his shoulder, her own gaze still on the dark water of the river. "Even if that's true, your mother still sees only the best in you. She loves you so much."

"Maroni will pay for what he's done." Oswald vowed, "He will die for this."

"Soon enough." Bird agreed, her voice quiet. "It was starting to feel like the day would never come, but we're so close Oswald, so close to all of this being over. Connor already planted the guns at Lidia's and it's almost time to start the war."

Shivering from the cold he nodded, "And all of Gotham will be ours."

"After everything that's still what you want?" She asked, "You don't feel like it's a dead end road leading to nothing but heartache?"

"I want to be king." He answered, "I deserve it."

"That's what you want… more than anything?" Bird whispered, swallowing hard as she spoke with the knowledge that she, herself, no longer wanted to rule Gotham or even have a hand in organized crime.

"More than anything." He nodded, glancing down to where her head was still rested on his shoulder, choosing to keep to himself that being king had much more appeal with the idea of her being at his side; being the queen.

"I think Harvey's going to propose." Bird finally said, her eyes drifting up to the nearly full moon in the sky as she waited on his reaction when she felt his body abruptly tense up.

In an almost eerily calm tone he stated, "Seems a little sudden."

"We've already bought a house… we'll be moving in together soon." She stated and he heard a touch of sadness in her voice as she apologized, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"Why didn't you?" He asked.

"I didn't know how you'd react and… I don't know, I guess I just know this changes everything." Her voice started to shake as she admitted, "And I'm scared."

"Scared?" Oswald asked, finally glancing back down to her as he spoke.

"I love him and I want a life with him just as much as you want to be King of Gotham, but I'm scared that I can't be the person he sees when he looks at me. Gotham is my home, it's my city and it's inside of me… like an infection that just keeps spreading and it's changed me." Thinking back to what Don Falcone had told her, Bird pulled in a ragged breath, "I think I might be damned."

Several minutes passed in complete silence, aside from the sounds of the water moving from the wind as it crashed against the dock they were still sitting on. Both of them growing colder by the second in the freezing night air, but neither had the strength or the will to move.

"I don't know about being damned." Oswald finally said, watching as she finally raised her head from his shoulder and faced him, he continued, "But I believe you're making a mistake. You say you want a normal life, but it's not made for you. You're made of something extraordinary and you feel the city inside of you because it's where you feel alive. You truly think you can find fulfillment living inside the law, married to someone like Harvey Dent?"

"What do you mean someone like him?" Bird asked, her eyebrows lowering as she spoke.

"Someone who wants you to change." Oswald simply answered, his eyes meeting hers as he spoke.

His glossy eyes roamed over her face in the moonlight and he questioned, "You truly want this?"

"I do –"

"You want to take out Don Maroni and Don Falcone and then part ways?"

"I don't want to part ways with you." Bird argued, her arm that was linked with his tightened as the thought of it started to panic her.

Oswald also started to feel anxiety at the idea as he argued, "You're talking about leaving everything you've worked for behind… how can you see us being as we are, if you're living a different life with Harvey Dent?"

"Don't do that." She sighed, "Don't make it sound like I'm choosing him over you, it's two completely different things."

His eyes painfully burned as he blinked his eyes a few times and diverted his gaze away from her. It didn't matter how she worded it, or how much she wanted to keep them both in her life –Oswald felt like she was telling him that she was choosing a life with Harvey, over a life with him.

"You deserve to be king." Bird nodded as she spoke, agreeing with what he'd said earlier, "And I deserve a chance at something different."

"Perhaps you'll change your mind?" Oswald asked, no longer aware of the frigid air that blew past him and had been painfully nipping at every inch of his exposed skin. The pain he was feeling inside far outweighed anything physical.

"I'm not going to change my mind." She stated, her eyes pleaded for his understanding as she stared at him.

When he refused to look at her, she cleared her throat and gently pulled her arm away from where it had been linked with his.

"It's really late." She softly said in a pained voice when she stood to her feet, "We should probably call this a night."

After a silent car ride back to Oswald's apartment, Bird took the long way driving home. Spending most of it lost in her head, alone with her thoughts and even music from the radio couldn't silence her mind.

Pulling to a stop outside of her building, she spotted Harvey's car and looked down to where she'd torn her dress to be able to move more freely to help Oswald dispose of the man he'd killed, knowing she'd have some explaining to do once she was inside.

Her legs felt heavy and weighed down as she by passed the elevator and slowly climbed the several flights of stairs leading to her apartment, trying to delay it for as long as possible.

When she unlocked her door and walked inside, she took her shoes off to move around silently in hopes that he might already be asleep and she wouldn't wake him up.

Just as she got to her bedroom door, she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Harvey was sound asleep in bed. A small smile spread over her lips and the ball of nerves in her stomach started to subside with the realization that this was truly what she wanted –to come home and see him every single night and wake up every morning next to him.

Having him there was almost enough to let her forget she'd helped move a dead body and clean up a crime scene just a few hours before.

After she'd changed clothes and climbed into bed next to him, Bird turned onto her side and stared at him while he slept as she thought to herself how strange her life had gotten; disposing of a dead body and then coming home to Harvey and going about her night like nothing was out of the ordinary.

Leaning back some she turned off the light on her bedside table, and closed her eyes when he started to stir beside her and sleepily asked, "What time is it?"

"It's late." She whispered back, smoothing the pillow out away from her face to get a better look at him in the nearly dark room.

"Did you just get home?" He questioned, raising his head up some to look at her.

"Yeah." She nodded, "I drove around for a while before I came home." With a small smile she admitted, "I didn't know you were going to be here, or I would have come straight home."

"I didn't like the way we left things earlier." He said, letting out a sigh and rubbing his face when he clarified, "More like the way I left things."  
When he'd dropped her off at her car after the ball, he'd made it perfectly clear how much he didn't like Oswald and hated knowing she was still spending so much time around him.

"It's okay." She said, leaning forward and kissing him as she pulled back and softly said, "Go back to sleep, we're supposed to go see our house in the morning. We should be able to start moving things in by the end of the week."

Turning on her side, she scooted back against him and smiled when he scooted up against her and wrapped his arm around her side.

In the moonlight illuminated room, she looked to the corner by her closet where she already had several packed boxes stacked up.

"What did he need help with?" Harvey finally asked, readjusting his head on the pillow.

"He needed some help moving a few heavy things." Bird answered, hoping he wouldn't keep prodding for a better answer.

"He called you so many times for help moving things?" Harvey asked, and she caught the hint of disbelief in his voice.

"He had a pretty rough night and his mother wasn't feeling well." Bird continued, knowing it was pretty much the truth and it made the lie easier to sell, "Besides, it's not like he has many friends to call on."

"You know…" Harvey breathed, "Sometimes there's a reason for someone not having many friends."

Starring ahead at the wall in front of her, her jaw tensed in anger and finally she pointed out, "You know, you don't have many friends either."

Raising up from the pillow, he looked down to where she was lying beside him and argued, "I have friends."

"You have lots of acquaintances… you go out for drinks with your co-workers sometimes, but you don't have a lot of friends." She argued back, "And then you have Jim, who you refer to as a friend but I swear you've spoken to him less than ten times."

"I work a lot." He defended, "Plus, my career doesn't exactly have people in Gotham lining up to get to know me."

"Yeah, I don't have many friends either. My point is that we all have our reasons for not being close to a lot of people." Bird pointed out defensively, "Not having a ton of friends doesn't make you a bad person."

Fighting against the urge to argue with her that Oswald Cobblepot was a bad person, in his mind one of the worst; Harvey nodded and laid his head back down as he sighed, "Fair enough."

It was over an hour later and Bird had just fallen asleep when there was a knock on her door that woke her back up.

Slowly she sat up on the edge of her bed and rubbed her eyes, wondering if she'd dreamt it until there was another set of knocks; louder than the first.

Standing up, she groggily stumbled out of her bedroom and through the living room, she unlocked and opened the door squinting out into the lighted hallway as she asked, "Jim? It's the middle of the night… what the hell is going on?"

Walking past her into the apartment he said, "Selina told me that you and Barbara have been spending a lot of time together."

Shutting the door and switching on the light in the living room she turned to face him with a confused expression.

An equally confused look was on his face as he asked, "Is that true? I find it a little hard to believe considering one of the last times you were around her, you were holding her at gunpoint and killed someone in front of her-"

"Would you keep your voice down!" She hissed, stepping closer to him as she gave him an angry look and said, "Yes, we've been good friends for months now."

Seeing the expression on her face, she rolled her eyes and complained, "Can you stop looking at me like I've got to have a motive behind all my friendships and relationships? Sometimes, I just spend time around people because we match up well and I actually like them. Barbara and I actually have a lot in common."

Not giving him a chance to speak she asked, "You rushed over here in the middle of the night for this? Are you kidding me?"

"What's going on?" Harvey asked, emerging from the bedroom and blinking in the change of lighting as he tried to get his eyes to focus and questioned, "Jim?"

Looking between them, Jim's tone changed and he said, "I'm sorry to bother you both so late, but this is important." Turning back to Bird he questioned, "When was the last time you spoke to Barbara Kean?"

"Before the Wayne Charity Ball." Bird remembered, "We helped Selina and then we got ready for the ball together and then Harvey picked me up from her apartment… why?"

"Did you see her at the charity ball?" Jim pushed.

"What's this about?" Harvey asked, waking up more as he walked further into the room and stopped next to Bird.

"Barbara's missing." Jim admitted.

"Oh my god." Harvey breathed, looking to Bird as she gasped, "What?"

Remembering his latest question she nodded, "Yeah, I saw her at the ball… but I didn't talk to her at all."

"We saw her dancing with a man." Harvey recalled and Bird's eyes widened as she added, "Yeah… she must have met up with him there, she told me she didn't have a date."

"Have either of you seen the man before?" Jim asked, but the couple both shook their heads no.

"Was this him?" Jim asked, pulling a folded up police sketch from his pocket and showing it to them.

"I didn't get a good look at him." Harvey said, apologetically and Bird took the paper as she breathed, "It's a pretty rough sketch… but, yeah, I think it could be him."

Jim's gaze fell to the floor and he seemed to be growing more distressed by the second as he told them, "Selina said she saw Barbara leave the ball with him…"

"Oh my god, Jim. Does this have anything to do with that case you've been working on? What are they calling him…" Her voice trailed off as she searched her thoughts and remembered, "The Ogre, right?"

As he slowly raised his head to look at her, Bird's eyes widened as she said, "You have to find her and fast!"

"I'm trying!" He breathed, glancing to Harvey before focusing back on Bird and saying, "If you know anything at all-"

"I don't." She answered honestly, worry pooled into her eyes and she repeated, "I'm sorry, I can't help you. I would if I could."

Jim nodded, feeling the crushing guilt of everything falling on him like a ton of bricks. He'd been tricked into taking on the case of the serial killer, by a uniformed officer who'd been told to hand him the case by Loeb.  
In all the years The Ogre had been active; no one had investigated very far because once someone was onto him, he'd go after someone they loved. Serval cops had lost girlfriends and wives for looking into the case.

He'd been so worried about The Ogre coming after Lee, that it had never even crossed his mind that Barbara could be a target.

"Thank you for the help." Jim curtly said swallowing hard as he took the sketch back and folded it up again, "If either of you think of anything that could be useful, call me. Day or night, it doesn't matter."

Bird walked with him towards her door and just as Jim stepped out into the hallway, Harvey called out, "You might check with some of the local papers, there were several reporters at the Wayne ball and they were taking a lot of pictures."

Nodding in thanks, Jim left and Bird slowly closed the door behind her, leaning against it as she stared down to the floor.

"I was happy, you know?" Bird quietly said, her eyes stung as she stared down to the floor. "There was this moment at the ball, when I let myself feel really happy and now all I can think is that's probably the exact moment he took her."

"You're allowed to be happy." Harvey said as he walked over to her, "This isn't your fault and Jim's going to find her."

"What if she's already dead?" Bird whispered, and Harvey didn't have an answer or anything to say that could make her feel better. Stepping closer he pulled her against him and she closed her eyes as she leaned into the embrace. Unable to stop the feeling that maybe Falcone was right; maybe she really was damned.  
It seemed like every time something worked out for her or she let herself be happy, something happened and knocked her back down. Holding onto him, she laid her head against his chest and admitted, "I'm just so tired of losing the people I care about."

* * *

 **A/N- I hope you all liked the chapter! I know I just updated a few days ago, but since I'm going to be busy for the rest of the week I wanted to go ahead and get this chapter posted.**

 **A special thanks to** **Shadow knight1121** **and to** **The Plague Doctor** **for reviewing chapter 46. ^_^**


	48. The Foxglove

**XLVIII**

 _"No one blames her."_  
 _"That never matters," said Alec. "Not when you blame yourself." -_  
 _― Cassandra Clare, City of Lost Souls_

* * *

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Bird questioned as she found her little brother in their late father's office at Wayne Manor.

"I didn't expect to see you so soon." Bruce admitted, laying the book he'd been looking through down on the coffee table, "Normally it's days –sometimes weeks in between when I call you and when you come here."

"I was already out." She explained, a small smile on her lips as she continued, "Picking out a dish set and some other things for the house. We're finally able to start moving things in."

Her brother smiled as he saw how happy she looked and he wished he had better news to tell her; wished he could keep her mood elevated, but sadly he hadn't called her there for good news.

"The night of the charity ball, I asked Selina to come there with me because I wanted her to make a copy of the key to Sid Bunderslaw's office safe." He openly admitted, standing up and walking towards where he'd been recollecting information and recreating the cork board that Reggie had cleared out.

"Damn it, Bruce." She sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I told you that you needed to be subtle… do you not understand what subtle means?"

"Of course I understand the meaning of the word." He said, looking at her, "I thought this was going to be subtle enough."

"What happened?" She questioned.

"I went to Wayne Enterprises with the key yesterday, pulled the fire alarm and went to his office… only he was expecting me and the safe was empty." Bruce admitted, his gaze falling to the floor as he spoke. "He knew Selina had made a copy of the key. He'd even cancelled the trip he'd been planning because he was waiting on me."

"What did he say?" Bird asked, walking over to him.

"He admitted to hiring Reggie Payne to gather the documents I'd been collecting." With an almost stunned look on his face, he repeated, "He admitted to all of it –all of the serious crimes that the company was committing, because he knew there was nothing I could do."

Bird watched her little brother as he picked up part of a picture that he'd cut the rest of their family out of and turned to tack it to the board. When he stepped to the side she saw it was a picture of their father –now pinned up along pictures of criminals and paper trail evidence of wrongdoings.

Her eyebrows knotted and Bruce said, "He said our father was the same as me once –came into the company with files and demanding to know what was happening, why a multi-national company was operating partly in the shadows." The air in the room seemed to burn his lungs as he struggled to take a breath and said in a low voice, "He said that he eventually came around, that dad knew about all of it –every single piece of wrongdoing and was okay with it."

"That doesn't sound like dad." Bird argued, and Bruce slowly nodded giving a weak shrug as he said, "But if you really think about it… how could he not have known?"

Bird didn't have an answer for him, she didn't even have one for herself, but it was difficult to believe that the same man who'd harped on her criminal-doings was letting corruption run rampant in his own company.

"You know…" She breathed, "Even if he did know, he was just one man… there probably wasn't much he could do to change anything."

"Yes, but just standing by and watching a crime happen puts him at fault as much as if he actively participated." Her little brother argued and she couldn't disagree.

"Maybe he did try?" Bird finally said, "Or maybe he was going to and that's why he was killed."

"That's what I keep thinking." Bruce said with a pained look on his face before he questioned, "Do you know Lucius Fox?"

"No." Bird shrugged, "Why, who is he?"

"A junior executive at the company… when I was leaving Bunderslaw's office, Mr. Fox stopped me and he said he knew dad well." His face wrinkled up with confusion as he recalled the seemingly chance meeting and said, "He told me that our father was a good man –that he wasn't who the company thought he was."

The expression of bewilderment grew when he added, "He said that dad was a true stoic… that he always kept the best part of himself hidden."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm not sure." He admitted, "But I intend to find out." His eyes drifted around the room and he said, "Dad was in here every single night, working for hours with the door locked. If he's hidden something, it has to be in this room."

"Bruce, the next time you plan on making any sort of move against anyone from the company… you have to come to me first and let me help you. I could have gotten into that safe without him knowing, we would have had whatever information he was keeping locked away." Bird lectured and her brother nodded, his head lowering in shame as he admitted, "I know that now. I just… I wanted to do something on my own and because of what Bunderslaw did, Alfred nearly died."

"I understand, but no more. Anything else you're going to run by me and see what I can do to help." Managing a small smile she nudged his arm and added, "I know you think you're the brains of the family, but you should know that I'm actually pretty smart about this kind of stuff."

 **~()~**

"Thought you'd given up the hard stuff?" Butch questioned as he stood behind the bar and watched Bird pour some alcohol into her glass as she sat next to Oswald.

"Barbara Kean is missing." Oswald reminded him, before sighing, "Show some compassion, Butch."

"I've asked around, you know?" Bird spoke up, staring down to the liquid in her glass. "I've called in some favors to different contacts and either no one knows anything –or no one is talking."

"I need some good news." Bird stated bringing the glass to her lips and downing the contents, before pulling in a breath and cringing through the burn, she asked, "How did things go a Lidia's?"

"Went off without a hitch." Butch explained, "Put the pistol under the bar and the machine gun behind the juke. All Connor and his guy gotta do is get to 'em."

"The day is finally here!" Oswald exclaimed with a wide smile. "We're so close now, Maroni will think Falcone came after him and he'll hit back. The city will ignite in a gang war…" His voice trailed off as she saw Bird reaching for the bottle again.

"Perhaps you've had enough?" Oswald carefully said, scooting her newly filled glass out of her reach when he reminded her, "Mustn't forget we haven't won the war yet, Bird."

"I'm thirsty." She complained, and Oswald sat the nearly full cup of tea he'd been drinking in front of her.

"Thanks." Bird said, before pouring a few splashes of scotch into the tea and taking a drink.

"That defeats the entire purpose!" Oswald hissed at her, and Butch quickly moved all the bottles of liquor back to their rightful spots and away from Bird.

"Maroni-" Oswald started to say, until the heard the door squeak open and the trio looked over to see Jim Gordon walking in.

"Jim!" Oswald smiled, always happy to see the man he considered a friend, "So lovely to see you. To what do I owe this wonderful surprise?"

Butch finished preparing another cup of tea and swapped it Bird's spiked drink when she wasn't looking, before he walked around and took a seat at the bar with her and Oswald.

"I need to know where the Foxglove is." Jim gruffly stated, "And I need an invitation."

A look of sheer shock and confusion fell over Butch's face and Bird cracked a smile as she asked, "Do you even realize what the Foxglove is?"

Oswald couldn't contain himself and chuckled as he teased, "Well… someone's in a mood."

"Can you help me out, yes or no?" Jim asked, avoiding the judgmental expressions on all three of their faces. The last thing he wanted to do was be there asking for another favor, especially one including a ticket to one of Gotham's most guarded and notorious events.

The Foxglove only opened up a few times a year, almost always at different location then the last party. It wasn't just an underground sex club, it was a place where sick minds could bring their darkest fantasies to life –for a very steep price.

"Jim, I do so love our give-and-take relationship, but it's starting to feel a bit one-sided." Oswald pointed out, and Bird nearly frantically nodded in agreement. Happy that Oswald was starting to catch onto Jim's habit of only coming around when he needed something.

"Fine…" Jim huffed, straining through a smile, "I'll owe you a favor."

"Do you even know what you're asking for?" Bird questioned again, taking a drink of her tea and seeming to not notice that it was a different cup than the one she'd poured alcohol into.

"Yes." He flatly stated looking past Oswald to where Bird was sitting.

"You already owe me a favor." Oswald pointed out.

"Then I'll owe you another." Jim bartered.

Sliding off the stool she'd been sitting on, Bird crossed her arms over her chest and stared Jim down. She couldn't imagine he'd be into even an ounce of the stuff that happened inside the sound proofed walls of the Foxglove. The idea of it all just made her skin crawl.

"Cards on the table…" Oswald lead in, "The Foxglove makes a lot of money for some very important-"

He didn't get to finish what he was saying when Jim grew increasingly irritated with his unwillingness to help and roughly pulled Oswald from his seat with a tight grip on the collar of his shirt.

Butch jumped up, but before he could even take a step Jim drew his gun and pointed it at him.  
Bird's eyes widened, and she hesitated herself in making a move against him.  
She'd never seen this side of Jim before, not like that. She could only imagine this must have been part of what Barbara spoke of.

Jim was in Oswald's face as he growled, "You think you know who I am? What I'm capable of? You have no idea!" His teeth were bared and his voice deeper than usual as he spoke.

Fearfully, Oswald squirmed trying to break free of the detective's near violent hold on him.

Bird's eyes narrowed and she grabbed onto Jim's arm and bent his wrist at an angle to where he could no longer keep his grip on the gun, it fell from his hand with a metal clank on the tiled floor by the bar.

Oswald stumbled backwards and within seconds, before any of them had time to react, Bird had pinned Jim face down against the bar with his right arm bent behind his back.

"Get off me!" He angrily yelled, trying to knock her backwards so he could get up.

"No!" Bird hissed as she applied more pressure until Jim let out a pained noise and stopped fighting, knowing it wouldn't take much more to either break his arm or dislocate his shoulder. "You don't come into our house demanding favors and pointing guns at the people I care about. That's not how this is going to work."

A smile spread over Oswald's lips as he straightened his suit out and his eyes seemed to come alive as he watched Bird's display of power.

Butch picked the gun up off the floor, not knowing how the detective might act when Bird finally let him go.

"It's about Barbara." Jim grunted out through the pain.

"What?" Bird asked, as she released her hold on him and stepped back.

Standing up and turning to face them, Jim's face was red as he rubbed his now aching shoulder and admitted, "The guy who took Barbara, they call him The Ogre and he's been known to frequent spots like The Foxglove."

"Wait…" Butch remembered, "The Ogre, I remember hearing about him years ago. It's rumored he was involved in all these disappearances, but the cops never went after him, cause he'd start killing off their loved ones." With a nearly amused expression, Butch added, "So this whole Barbara thing is your fault."

"I knew it. I know her getting taken had something to do with your case." Bird shook her head, facing Jim down as she scoffed, "You knew he'd go after someone important to you and you went after him anyways. Just like I said before… a dog with a bone."

Temper flared red behind her eyes as she watched him, thinking of all the times he'd came to her judging and accusing her of putting the people she loved in danger –even looking down on her for doing so. When he was doing the exact the same thing for brownie points at work and wanting to take down a criminal that no one else had.

"I thought he was going to go after Lee." Jim admitted, "So I made sure she was safe, I never thought…" His voice trailed off and he swallowed hard, avoiding Bird's eyes now.

"Oh! Well, thank God that you made sure Lee was safe!" Bird yelled, her hands clenching into fists at her sides, "My God, Jim. Did Barbara ever even cross your mind when you decided to be all macho and go after The Ogre."

"I am trying to make it right!" Jim yelled back at her, "I'm trying to fix this!"

Stepping closer and putting an arm out in front of Bird to hold her back when he could see just how enraged she was, Oswald cleared his throat and said, "Today is an important day for me, so I will accommodate your request. But, detective, mark my words –you owe me a BIG favor!" He nearly spat.

 **~(Later that week)~**

Bird walked down the hallway clutching her purse tightly at her side as if she were afraid it would vanish if she let go. It wasn't money she was carrying with her that she was worried about losing, it was a vial of blood.  
After reviewing Don Falcone's appointment book she'd discovered he had an upcoming doctor's appointment and had paid one of the nurses at the office he used to draw blood from him and set one of the vials to the side for her.

A plan she wasn't entirely sure was going to work until she had the tube of his blood in her own hands.

Reaching the door to the apartment she was seeking out, she raised her hand and knocked several times until the metal door was finally slid open.

"Miss Wayne?" Ed greeted with a stunned expression on his face, before his forehead lined and he asked, "What are you doing here? How do you even know where I live? Why are you-"

"One question at a time, Nygma, er, –Ed ." Bird cut him off, before questioning, "Is it okay if I call you Ed?"

"Yes…" He nodded.

"Great!" Bird exclaimed trying to keep a smile on her face as she explained, "I know it's getting late and I'm sorry to bother you, but do you remember the conversation we had about matching up blood samples… paternity testing and all?"

"I do." He answered, as he continued to nod through everything she said.

"I need your help." She admitted, finally letting her cheeks relax from the smile she'd plastered on. Pulling the glass vial of blood from her purse she held it up and said, "I'm going to need you to run that test."

With a laugh like she'd just told him a joke, he shook his head, "We were speaking hypothetically… I told you I can't run a test without the permission of both parties-"

"Please." She pleaded, cutting off his protests. "I'm here out of desperation… you see, because of who I am, people know me. They know my face and I can't just go anywhere, rumors would start and there would probably be an article in one of the papers and no one can know about this."

Not giving him time to respond she said, "I was adopted and I think this blood might be my biological fathers and if this person knew I'd been poking around and found out I had this… well, I'm not entirely sure I'd live to find out the results."

"Whose blood is it?" He asked, his eyes widening as he pushed his glasses back up on his nose.

"That's not really important." Bird shrugged the question off, "Will you help me? I can pay you-"

"I don't want your money." He said. Seeing how upset she looked, he knew he wouldn't feel right accepting it.

"Then I'll owe you a favor." Bird offered, as she pleaded, "Please."

Letting out a sigh, when he knew he didn't have the heart to tell her no. He nodded, "I can run the test tomorrow-"

"Or we can go right now." Bird said.

"Right now?" He repeated back, looking like he was on the verge of laughing again.

"There would be less people at the station, right? Less chance of someone seeing us." Bird said and he realized she did have a point. So far Lee, the new medical examiner, had been nice to him and given him freedoms with his job that the former M.E. hadn't. He didn't want to mess that up by being caught running tests he shouldn't be.

After he'd gotten his coat, they left for the police station in his car. Bird sat silently in the passenger seat not even sure how to feel knowing that she was less than hour away from finding out the truth about whether or not Falcone was her father.

She was violently brought out of her thoughts when Ed slammed on the brakes and she had to quickly place her hands against the dash to stay in her seat.

"Oh my!" He exclaimed, seeming also startled from the abrupt stop, "I'm sorry." He apologized, "Something's just came up that I need to take care of first."

Bird's face contorted with a completely confused expression as she looked around and didn't see any other cars on the road with them, she had no idea what he was talking about.

Doing a u-turn, he parked on the side of the street and yelled out his window, "Stop right there, buster!"

Bird leaned forward to see an obviously intoxicated man across the sidewalk nearly stumble as he turned around to see who was talking to him.

Nygma quickly got out of his car and Bird shook her head, she didn't want any more of a delay in him running the test for her, but considering he was helping her she didn't feel like she had the right to say anything.

"Riddleman?" The guy yelled in a slurred voice, as he started to stumble across the street towards him. Bird looked through the driver side open window and thought the man looked vaguely familiar, she was pretty sure she'd seen him at the police station before.

She soon had conformation in her assumption when Nygma greeted back, "Officer Dougherty."

"What the hell are you doing creeping around here?" Tom Dougherty asked.

"You need to leave Miss Kringle alone." Nygma asserted and Bird let out a sigh as she pulled her phone from her pocket to check the time, wondering how long they were going to be stopped there.

"What?" Tom questioned, as he moved closer to hear him better over the sounds of traffic from the overpass above them.

"I'm not going to let you hurt her… ever again. I think you need to leave Gotham tonight." Nygma yelled over the sounds of a motorcycle that loudly sped across the pavement above.

Hearing the officer start to laugh, Bird tucked her phone back into her pocket and turned sideways in the seat to get a better look at what was happening as she pieced together what was going on.  
From the sounds of it, she gathered that Ed was mad at him for hurting Miss Kringle, a name she didn't herself recognize, but apparently she must have meant a great deal to Ed.  
He seemed rattled from having to be confrontational with the officer and completely out of his element.

"I get it now." Tom laughed, slurring his words as he nodded to one of the townhouses behind him and continued, "You got a thing for my girl. That's too funny."

Leaning forward he placed a hand on Ed's shoulder and said, "Don't take this personal…" With that he brought his arm back and swung it forward, hitting him hard enough in the stomach that it brought Ed down to the rain slicked pavement with a loud groan of pain.  
"You want some more?" Tom laughed, and Bird angrily scrambled out of the passenger seat of the car.

But just as she crossed around the car to come to Nygma's aid, he got up and plunged a knife into the officer's stomach.

Her eyes widened and she stopped, standing in place as Nygma looked down to the crimson stained blade and breathed, "Oh… oh dear."

Seeing how badly he was bleeding, Nygma knew he'd severely wounded the officer, but it didn't feel like enough.  
It wasn't punishment enough for all the bruises he'd left on Miss Kringle. He loved her and would do anything to keep her safe and the only way he could guarantee Officer Dougherty wouldn't ever harm her again was to get rid of him.

Without giving more thought to what was happening, he plunged the knife into him several more times as hard as he could, until Dougherty fell to his knees and tried to breathe as he said in an agonized, weakened voice, "Riddleman?"

"Oh dear…" Ed said as the officer fell flat onto his back and stopped breathing, the man's clothes were saturated in blood and he could feel the wet warmth of it on the hand he'd stabbed him with.

Seeming shocked by what had happened, he took a few stumbling steps backwards muttering to himself, "Oh dear…oh no –oh dear."

As Bird stepped out onto the street and started to look around, making sure no one was watching them from the windows. His gaze snapped up to her he stuttered, "I-I didn't mean to do that, I j-just…" his voice trailed off and he looked back down to the knife and dropped it to the ground to show he didn't mean her any harm and had no intention of hurting her.

"You got two choices Ed." Bird finally said, "Either call this thing in, say he was drunk and came at you; that it was self-defense. Or we need to get his body up off the street and into the trunk of your car." Rubbing her forehead in complete disbelief to how the night had turned out she added, "But you need to decide fast because we're on a residential street and running out of time."

His breath was rushing in out and of lungs so fast he could barely even hear her over the sounds of his own breathing and rapid heart rate. Looking towards Kristen Kringle's townhouse, he knew that her finding out he'd killed Dougherty would ruin any chance he might have with her.

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his keys with shaky hands and nearly dropped them while he tried to unlock his trunk and open it.

"Okay." Bird nodded, checking their surroundings again, "I'll grab his arms and you get his legs."

After they'd gotten his body lifted off the ground and into the trunk, Bird picked up the knife and threw it in on top of him before shutting the trunk and tuning to look at Ed who still seemed completely bewildered by the entire ordeal.

"Maybe I should drive." She stated, holding her hand out of the keys.

"You're very calm." He pointed out in a wavering tone, clutching his keys tightly in his hand as he tried to figure what her next move would be. Anyone else in that position would have been more panicked than he was.

"Honestly Ed, you would not believe how many of my nights end up just like this." Bird said.

Not sure he could find it in himself to be able to operate a car after what had just happened, he handed the keys to her and they got back into the car, only now with her in the driver's seat.

Rolling the window up, she pushed the key into the ignition and asked, "Where to?"

When he didn't answer and just stared straight ahead out of the front car window.

"We could tie him to some concrete blocks and drop him in Gotham River?" She suggested.

"No." He said, "Bodies…" his voice trailed off and he cleared his throat, "More so what's left of them wash up nearly every week. No one can ever find Officer Dougherty."

Looking down to his bloody hands he said, "No body, no crime."

"But it's not like you can just make his body disappear." Bird argued.

Slowly turning his head to face her, there was a look in his eyes like a lightbulb had went off in his head and he smiled, "Yes, I can. In the lab at the station I have the correct chemicals to dissolve everything down to the bone." Nodding and seeming to almost grow excited he continued, "I can smash down the bone and dispose of it too. No body, no crime."

"Great idea… aside from the fact that you're talking about trying to get a corpse through the GCPD witout drawing attention to yourself." She pointed out.

Seeing the look on his face, she asked, "What?"

"It wouldn't look suspicious if I had something to put him in… a luggage bag on rollers for example." He said, thinking he had a bag big enough for the job.

"You mean take him apart?" Bird realized, "Cut him up into pieces for easier transport and disposal?"

Blowing out a heavy breath she started the car and said, "I know a place we can go."

"Why are you helping me?" He finally voiced the question he'd been wondering since she'd helped him load the body into his car.

With a shrug she said, "I guess I could feed you some line about how I heard the conversation you guys had and it sounded like he had it coming… or even try to bond over how I had someone help me clean up the mess I made with the first person I killed."  
He stared at her from behind his glasses, his eyes widening as he listened to her admission.

"But the truth is; the blood I'm wanting you to test against mine belongs to Carmine Falcone." Bird admitted, rubbing her hands over the steering wheel as she spoke, "I'm not an angel, Ed. I've done some pretty bad stuff in my time and I never felt like I fit in with my family… more than just not being blood related to them and all I can think is how all the pieces might fall into place, I mean my life and the way I turned out, might make a hell of a lot of sense if my biological father turns out to be the biggest crime boss in Gotham City."

"I need you, I need your help. I can't move on in my life if I still have no idea who I really am." Bird continued, offering him a small smile she added, "And I know what you're feeling right now. The only reason I didn't get caught when I first killed someone was because I had a friend who helped me… and it also kinda sounds like the guy had it coming."

"He hurt Miss Kringle." Ed nodded, "He was going to do it again."

"Alright then." Bird conceded with raised eyebrows, "So he had to die."

"Yes." He confidently said, seeming much calmer than he had minutes before.

It was about forty minutes and several stops to gather things later, when Bird backed the car up to a garage service door at an old brick building. After having him get into the driver's seat and telling Nygma to wait there, she went around the back and climbed up to the second floor, where she got in through a window and came down stairs to open the door for him.

Once the car was inside and she'd pulled the door back down and locked it, she looked back to see Nygma looking around as he questioned, "What is this place?"  
His eyes scanned over the dark stained cement floor and the rusted drain in the center of the room, there were rows of meat hooks hanging from the ceiling and the scent of death and decay was strong in the air. He could have sworn with every breath he pulled in through his mouth that the coppery taste of blood was stinging his tongue.

"Trust me… you don't want to know." Bird flatly stated, as she opened up the trunk to the car.

"I've heard about places like this." He said, turning in a slow circle to take in more of the gruesome surroundings, "The mob brings bodies here –it's where they get rid of problems."

"Something like that." She nodded, turning to face him as he joined her at the back of the car she added, "The lucky ones are already dead before they wind up here."

After they carried Tom Dougherty's body to the nearest flat metal table and they both had pulled the plastic clothing protectors on, along with thick gloves and even coverings for their shoes. Bird hopped up onto the side of the table and plugged the saw in to the outlet hanging from the ceiling.

"You'll run the test first chance you get and call me, right? And just so we're clear… this completely cancels out the favor I owed you for agreeing to run the paternity test. You hear me?" She asked, as she jumped back onto the floor and looked at him.

With a nod, Ed pulled the clear hard-plastic covering of the protective helmet over his face and said, "Loud and clear."

"Alright then, let's do this." Bird said, as she covered her own face with the protective helmet piece. This certainly wasn't how she'd seen the night playing out, and as much as she'd prefer dropping the body into the river over cutting it apart –she did feel a sense of peace with knowing her debt had been paid in full.

She always hated owing favors.

 **~(The next night)~**

Bullock descended the stairs of the mansion where The Foxglove party was being held that evening.  
Jim had gave him the invite to the club and they'd decided it would be better if he'd went.

He could handle this, he told himself. It should be easy enough, there were worse ways to spend the night then surrounded by scantily dressed women. He'd heard of The Foxglove before, never thought he'd manage to score an invite, but as he got closer to the main room, he reminded himself to keep his cool.

No matter what he saw, he had to remain calm, cool and collected.

His hair was slicked back and he was in the single most expensive suit he owned, trying to carry himself in such a manner that he'd fight right in with the high-rollers. A girl dressed in all leather with a spiked collar around his neck took his coat and he'd barely gotten turned around before a waitress wearing a skimpy French maid's outfit offered him a selection from the tray of champagne flutes.

He smoothly swiped up one of the glasses and nodded in thanks, before reaching the point where you had to present your invitation to get any further.

"Welcome to The Foxglove!" The leggy blonde, with half of her face covered in a mask greeted him, "The evening's entertainment is about to begin."

"Then I guess I'm just in time." He suavely replied, producing the invitation card from his pocket and handing it over with a winning smile.

Walking through the dark red drapes over the doorway, he paused for a minute to take it all in. People were in various states of undress, while others were in head-to-toe leather suits, complete with masks.

The room was glowing from at least a hundred candles, and there were workers holding trays of drinks all over the room.

He nodded to one of the waitresses who passed him and tried to remind himself that he was here on office GCPD business.

He spotted two girls and guy over on a round bed in the corner. They had him bound and tied up, while one poured hot wax over his bare skin and the other girl smacked him with a whip.

Shaking his head, he thought to himself that he'd seen worse than this on the internet –not that he frequently visited those sites, he told himself.

Looking over he saw a couple of people dressed up in leather pony suits on the dance floor, but his attention was soon drawn over to where a girl was tied to a chair with a bag over her head, fighting and squirming trying to break free.

He started over towards her, but stopped when the man she was there with ripped a hole in the bag just big enough to smash his lips against her mouth and the woman giggled while she fought for a breath.

"What the hell…" Bullock breathed as he walked into the next room to see a grown man wearing nothing but a yellow diaper and a white bunny mask, flipping around in his chair and shaking a rattle while a girl dressed in all black leather bottle fed him through the mask.

He looked around for anyone with a tray of drinks, he knew he needed to keep his wits about him, but at this rate he was going to need a few drinks to make it through the night.

It was then that he felt someone link arms with him, and he looked over to see a girl dressed in a skin tight, black leather dress that didn't leave much to the imagination –with spike heeled leather thigh-high boots.

His eyes traveled up her body until he saw the masquerade mask on her face that was framed with dark, brunette curls. It took him a moment to look back down to where she'd liked arms with him and he offered up a smile as he apologized, "Sorry darlin', but I'm kind of in the middle of something."  
He looked her over again before adding, "Trust me, I'm really sorry-"

"Don't flatter yourself. You're not my type." She cut him off, and Bullock got a better look at her face before he realized out loud, "Crazy eyes? What the hell are you doing here?"

Nodding over to the guy in the bunny mask, Bird whispered, "If the whole diaper thing freaks you out, you really don't want to go into the basement." Shuddering she mumbled, "Some things you can never un-see."

"What are you-" He started to asked, but she tightened her arm around his and commanded, "Keep walking and just act normal."

As a waitress passed them, Bullock did his best to smile and nod as he swooped up one of the glasses and continued to walk further into the club with Bird on his arm.

"I was expecting Jim." She admitted, looking around to make sure no one was listening to them, "But you'll do, I guess. What's the plan? Are we looking for The Ogre himself or are we trying to get info out of the girls who work these things?"

Nearly choking on his drink, Bullock argued, " _We're_ not doing anything. I'm trying to work and you're just getting in the way."

They both jumped when there was a loud crack sound from beside them where a man was flogging another guy with a large whip across his chest.

"I want to help find Barbara." Bird admitted to him, "I wouldn't touch the door of this place with a ten foot pole if it wasn't for someone I care about."

Slowly Bullock nodded.  
He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he'd wondered before what sorts of things really happened within the walls of The Foxglove and similar clubs. Now he was starting to wish he'd never known the answers.

He was all for being adventurous and having fun, but over fifty percent of what he was seeing looked more like torture than kinky fun.

"I'm trying to work here." He complained, setting his empty glass down on a table and trying to shrug Bird off of his arm.

"No way." She hissed back, digging her fingers into his arm until he stopped trying to shake her loose, "I'm not going anywhere and if anyone comes up to us, you're saying I'm taken –because I've already had to fight some guys off."

Thinking back to when she was trying to get back up from the basement she admitted, "Pretty sure I killed one of them."

"I'm a cop!" Bullock reminded her, "You can't tell me those things."

"Too late." Bird shrugged, still keeping a painfully tight grip on his arm.

As they crossed into the next room, they saw a man crawling around on all fours, while a girl roughly continued to jerk on the leash and choker around his neck.

"This is just…" Bullock breathed shaking his head back and forth.

"Keep moving." Bird instructed, knowing the longer they stood still, the more likely they were to be approached.

In the next room they found the stage and Bullock said, "The girl I gave my invite too said something about tonight's entertainment, know anything about that?"

"No clue." Bird admitted, she was just about to say they should keep walking, but a woman walked out on the stage and the dark music and animal sounds through the speakers quieted down.

"Guess we're about to find out." Bullock whispered.

" _Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. I know you have been eagerly awaiting tonight's main attraction. So please, lets' give a big Foxglove welcome to Ingrid and Gareth!"_

Bullock and Bird looked around as they both clapped around with everyone else, not entirely sure they even wanted to see what the entertainment of the night was.

A very thin blonde girl was wheeled out on stage, dressed in just a see-through bra and thong set, with a ball gag in her mouth. The man who'd wheeled her out whipped her on the breast with a red-tipped riding crop. She let out a scream, followed by a loud moan.

Both Bullock and Bird watched the scene in a near state of shock when another man walked a large pig out on the stage and another followed behind them with a chainsaw.

"Do you think they're going to kill the girl or the pig?" Bird whispered, leaning close to Bullock as she added, "Or both?"

"I got no idea…" He admitted, hoping the chainsaw was just going to be a prop. Until the guy started it up and a series of amused gasps and excited whispers lit through the crowd.

"Oh no…" Bullock breathed, "Hell no…"

Finally shaking Bird off of his arm, he pulled out his badge and yelled, "GCPD! NOBODY MOVE!"  
The crowd started to thin out and Bullock pointed to the people on the stage and ordered, "Especially you!"

Looking back over to Bullock, Bird asked, "No really, which one do you think they were going to cut apart?"

"Get outa here, crazy eyes." He complained while taking his phone out to call and let Jim know his cover was blown and to bring in the reinforcements that were stationed nearby awaiting the signal.

 **~()~**

"Jim!" Bullock called out upon spotting his partner from across the room, while uniform officers were trying to get the crowd under control and take names and statements.

"Harvey!" Jim called back, as he started in his direction. When the crowd between them cleared some, he saw there was a leather clad woman on his arm and sighed, "You supposed to be working, remember?"

"What do you think I'm doing?" He defended, before pleading, "You gotta help me, partner. She won't let go."

Jim's forhead lined with confusion and he started to ask what was going on, but didn't get the chance.

"Yeah, pardon me for being a little on edge in some freaky-torture-sex-club where nearly everyone I pass is looking at me like a piece of meat!" Bird loudly exclaimed, before roughly letting go of Bullock's arm and crossing her arms over her chest.

Once he heard her voice, he tried to make it a point of not letting his eyes roam over her body in the tight dress she had in, but the more he was determined not to look down, the more his eyes betrayed him and wandered before he could stop himself.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jim sighed, as he reached forward and pulled the mask off of her face.

"Helping you find Barbara." She explained, reaching towards him and ordering, "Give me back the mask, I don't want people here to recognize me."

"Then maybe you shouldn't have came here in the first place." Jim flatly stated, but didn't try to stop her as she pulled her masquerade mask from his hand.

After speaking to the lady who ran The Foxglove, they'd been directed to the worker who'd been taking the invitations from guests upon their arrival. Her name was Sally and according to the club's owner, if anyone knew details about The Ogre, it would be Sally.

Bird followed Jim and Bullock to where they'd pulled Sally aside for questioning and showed her the rough sketch of Jason Lennon, A.K.A The Ogre.

"You know him?" Jim asked in a rather gruff tone when Sally remained silent.

She nodded, but Jim pushed, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." She snapped, shoving the sketch back into his hand and removing the lace mask that shielded half of her face –revealing a dark scar running along her cheek.

"What can you tell us about him?" Bullock asked, but Sally didn't seem to be feeling very cooperative with the police.

"Why didn't you go to the cops?" Jim asked, nodding to the scar on her face.

"I did!" Sally exclaimed, scoffing, "But I was a hooker and he was a rich man with no name."  
Letting out a heavy sigh she asked, "We done here?"

"You don't like cops. I get it." Bird sympathized, "I don't either."

Stepping forward and pulling off her mask, Bird offered, "So forget them and just talk to me. Girl to girl."

Sally eyed her suspiciously for a second, sizing her up and coming to the conclusion that there was no way the girl standing in front of her was a cop.

Jim was just about to tell Bird not to interfere when Sally blew out a sigh and asked, "What do you want to know?"

Bullock and Jim exchanged looks from behind where Bird was standing.

"What happened the night you got that scar?"

"He said his name was Jason." Sally recalled, "He was sweet… until I got into his car where he pulled a hood over my head and tied my wrists. He took me back to his apartment and that's where he did this." She motioned back to her scared cheek.

With a shrug she added, "I don't know why he let me go."

"When was this?" Jim questioned.

Sally answered his question, but kept her eyes on Bird as she spoke, "About nine years ago."

"About a year before the first murder… must have been working his way up." Bullock commented. "Anything else you can tell us? About him or about his apartment, the smallest detail might help."

"No." She shrugged.

"There has to be something." Bird pushed, taking a step forward and lowering her voice as she pleaded, "I know that night, even in your memories, is a place you never want to see again. And I'm sorry for making you bring it all back up, because I know how even though you survived that night, you still feel like a part of you didn't. But there has to be more you remember than what you're telling us."

Sally looked at her, but didn't say anything.

"You were in his apartment." Bird reminded her, "I know there are things you remember. Like the way the air smelled, whether the furniture was cloth or leather, sounds from the nearby streets. There are details from that night that you can't forget no matter how hard you try to." Bird said in a pained voice,  
"A friend of mine is missing, he's got her and I don't think we've got much time to find her. I hate asking you to tear those wounds back open, but I'm asking anyways. Don't let him win, Sally."

"The elevator opened up right into his apartment." Sally remembered, her eyes pinning shut as she forced herself to bring up everything she'd spent nine years trying to bury, "From the windows… you could see out into the city, we were in midtown."

"What else?" Bird pushed.

"There was a big neon sign from across the street, but I could only make out the last four letters 'o,y,a,l'." Sally told them.

"oyal…" Jim breathed, shrugging, "Loyal, royal-"

"Royal!" Bullock picked up and Bird nodded "Gotham Royal Hotel, it's in midtown."

"10th and Gainsly!" Jim followed along with their train of thought, nodding he said, "Thank you, Sally." As he started to walk by her, she grabbed his arm and quietly said, "Promise me, when you find him… don't arrest him. Kill him."

Jim nodded on last time before he started to walk away, but only made it a few steps when he turned to see if Bird was following them and he overheard their conversation.

"Thank you." Bird politely said, as she started to walk by, but then paused and turned back as she said, "Look, I know we don't know each other and so this probably doesn't mean anything coming from me, but I'm going to say it to you because I don't know if anyone else ever has. What happened to you wasn't your fault. It doesn't matter if you had to turn tricks for money to live off of, you didn't deserve what happened. That man is a monster and it's not your fault."

Sally blinked a few times as her eyes started to fill with tears and she all she could manage to do was give a single nod, until Bird got a few steps away from her and Sally turned to ask, "Did anyone ever tell you what happened to you wasn't your fault either?"

"What-" Bird nearly gasped, spinning back around.

"Not all scars are this noticeable." Sally pointed out, motioning back to her own face, "Sometimes the worst scars are the ones you can't see and I know that look in your eyes, I see it in the mirror every night. I don't know what you've been through and I'm not prying, but same goes for you. Whatever happened… it wasn't your fault."

Pulling in a ragged breath, Bird managed to slowly nod before softly saying, "Take care of yourself, Sally."

As she turned to leave she came to an abrupt stop when she saw Jim and realized he'd overheard the entire exchange.

Judging by the expression that spread over Bird's face, he immediately realized it was something she'd meant for Sally's ears only and he gave a soft, apologetic shrug as he started to say, "Bird…"

But she pulled her eyes away from him and crossed her arms over her chest before storming past him towards the exit, not even giving him a second to plead his case.

* * *

 **A/N - I hadn't planned on updating today, but then found myself with a little downtime and thought 'why not?' lol**

 **I really hope you all liked the chapter! I'm thinking only about 5 or so more chapters until I'll be finished with season 1. ^_^**

 **Big thanks to Shadow knight1121, EveWrites and Snuffles awesome for reviewing chapter 47!**


	49. Best of Friends

**XLIX**

" _Her heart was telling her to trust him, but it wouldn't be the first time that -that foolish muscle, there in the middle of her chest, had betrayed her."_ _―_ _Mirella Muffarotto, Sweet Cherry Chapstick_

* * *

"You sure you don't want to go back and get your car?" Jim asked as he pulled to a stop on the side of the street and looked over to Bird who was in the passenger seat.

When they went to leave The Foxglove, some reporters had already shown up and there was no way she could have gotten to her car without being spotted, so she went out the back exit with Jim and Bullock.

"No, it's been a long day and it's really late." She declined, saying she'd have someone take her to get her car once the sun came up.

"I'm sorry." He finally said, "For the day I came into the club needing an invitation for The Foxglove, I'm sorry about how it all went down."

"I'm sorry for nearly breaking your arm." She said, before giving him a small smile and excusing, "Even though you kind of deserved it."

Her words brought out a small laugh from the exhausted detective, who knew there was some truth in what she was saying.

He wouldn't have normally acted like that, but he'd felt entirely responsible for Barbara's life being in danger and he had to fix it. No matter the cost, he needed to right his wrongs.

Turning in his seat some, he looked over at her and watched her for a few moments in silence as she made no attempt to get out of the car.

Barbara was safe, thanks very much in part to Bird being able to get Sally to open up to her. They'd found Jason Lennon's apartment and after a taunting telephone call from him, they'd tracked him and Barbara to her parents house.

They'd been too late to save her parents lives, but they were able to put a bullet in The Ogre's head before anyone else was killed. Though in the struggle, his knife had slid across Barbara's neck –luckily the cut wasn't very deep and she was going to be fine.

Without Bird's help at The Foxglove, Jim knew the night could have turned out an entirely different way. Only now he found himself wondering the personal cost she'd faced in helping them.

Bird looked down to her lap and blew out a sigh, as she fidgeted with the button on Jim's coat that she'd borrowed earlier in the night.

"You're staring." She pointed out.

Clearing his throat he said, "I know tonight wasn't easy on you. After everything you've been through, walking into a place like The Foxglove had to have been difficult-"

"Goodnight, Jim." Bird quickly said, scrambling to find the handle of the car and get out of the small space so she could breathe again.

Quickly getting out of the car, he jogged around it and met her on the sidewalk outside of the brownstone house. "I'm not trying to bring it up, I just-"

"I'm not talking about this with you." She gruffly said, shaking her head back and forth.

"That's fine, you don't have to." He quickly said, before clarifying, "I just want you to know that you helped save Barbara's life tonight. If you hadn't gotten Sally to open up to you…"  
His voice trailed off and there was a tinge of helplessness to his tone as he added, "I guess I'm just trying to say thank you."

"I didn't do it for you." Bird reminded him, "Barbara is my friend."

Dismissively she turned and started for the house and Jim walked along beside her, reassuring, "They said Barbara's going to be fine, she's going to make a full recovery. They just wanted to keep her at the hospital overnight for observation."

"Look…" He breathed as they neared the door and the outside security light kicked on, "What I said to you that day at Wayne Manor, about you living a high-risk life and the people around you paying for the price for it. I had no right."

"You're just full of regrets tonight, Jim Gordon." Bird weakly replied.

Jim looked her over, he'd never been good at apologies. He, of course, knew when he was at fault he needed to own up to it, but it didn't make actually expressing his feelings on it any easier.  
And Bird wasn't the type who'd make anything simple on him.

"Nights like tonight just put things into perspective." He explained, trying not to overstep his boundaries, "Sometimes you just make it a little too easy forget how human you are underneath it all."

Looking offended, her brows knotted as she scoffed, "Screw you too, Jim."

With that, she turned and reached for the door, but he caught her arm and stopped her. "I didn't mean it like that." He assured her, "I just mean you act so tough and strong that sometimes it's almost easy to forget the glimpses I've gotten of the real you."

"The real me?" She helplessly chuckled.

"Yes." Jim nodded, his eyes locking with hers and he couldn't bring himself to look away.

"Starling, I was getting worried, I kept trying to call…" Harvey's voice trailed off as he pulled the door open to greet his girlfriend and was instead met by the sight of her and Jim standing far too close together.

"Jim…" Harvey added, his tone no longer having an friendliness to it as he saw the detective let go of Bird's arm and take a few steps backwards.

"Hey, Harvey." He greeted back, straining to forge a smile.

"Sorry." Bird apologized to her boyfriend, as she turned to face him and explained, "I left my phone in my car."

Harvey didn't say anything back, but his eyes widened as he saw the way Bird was dressed and then angrily stared between her and Jim; waiting on some kind of explanation to what the hell was going on.

When both of them continued to avoid his eyes and stare off in opposite directions, Harvey stepped completely outside and left the door to the house wide open. "Is someone going to tell me what's happening?"

"It's a long story." Bird sighed, rubbing her head as she spoke.

"Well, I just had a pizza delivered." Harvey said, and despite the smile on his lips his voice came out as a near growl when he said, "Why don't you both come inside for dinner? Tell me this _long story_."

Not appreciating the tone of his voice at all, Jim took a step forward and admitted, "We caught The Ogre tonight, killed on sight. Barbara's going to be fine –none of which could have happened without Bird's help."

"Happy to hear it." Harvey said through his teeth and before he could stop himself he commented, "You know, as much as Starling seems to be helping the GCPD lately maybe she should be added to the payroll."

"What are you-" Jim started to ask.

"I'm talking about Jerome Valeska." Harvey loudly spoke over him, "I'm talking about you putting her in the same room as that psycho, I'm talking about having her get you evidence to put Flass away and now apparently in helping you go after The Ogre."

Jim was silent as he stared back at him, noting how the look in his eyes barely even appeared human any longer. It was a side of Harvey Dent that he'd heard some rumors about, the side he was sure Bird saw when he'd hurt her before –but it was a side of him that Jim hadn't seen before.

"Thanks for driving me home." Bird calmly said, as she looked at Jim and added, "Get home safe."

"You sure you're okay?" Jim asked, his gaze locked on hers. He knew his presence was probably only making things worse at the moment, but he didn't feel right leaving her there knowing that Harvey had hurt her in a fit of rage before.

"I'm fine." She promised, before saying, "Just go home to Lee."

He could have sworn he picked up the sound of bitterness in her tone; and he watched as Harvey stepped to the side and let Bird get past him towards the door of their house.

"Have a good night." Jim managed to say in a tone much friendlier than he even thought himself capable of at the point.

"Jim!" Harvey yelled after Jim had mad it halfway down the sidewalk, "Forgetting something?"

He turned back around to see Bird shrugging out of his jacket and Harvey take it from her, before he held it out for him to come and get.

As Jim stepped closer her caught one last sight of Bird, before Harvey stepped in front of her in a rather territorial manner and pushed the coat into Jim's arms.

Nothing else was said between the trio, as Bird went inside followed by Harvey who slammed the door behind him and left Jim feeling rather uneasy outside of their house.

Once they were inside, Bird headed for the kitchen and hopped up onto one of the stools at their kitchen island as she opened up the box of pizza and grabbed a slice out of it.

Moments later Harvey walked in and eyed her as he walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a couple cans of soda for them. Stepping up to the other side of the counter island, he slid her drink to her which she caught and mumbled a thanks under her breath.

He opened his own soda and took a drink, continuing to stare her down with each passing second.

"Is this what our lives have come to?" She tried to joke, "Angrily chewing pizza as we glare at one another?"

"I don't know, are you going to tell me what happened tonight?" He asked, biting a large chunk out of the slice of pizza with much more force than necessary.

Laying her half-eaten slice back in the box, she took a drink of her soda and asked, "Have you ever heard of The Foxglove?"

"I've heard rumors." Harvey admitted, shrugging, "I didn't think the place was real."

"Oh, it's real, alright." Bird blew out a breath as she spoke and her eyebrows raised.

"Okay." Harvey nodded the entire time as he questioned, "So that's why you're dressed as a prostitute?"

"Classy, Harvey." She scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry Starling. What am I even supposed to ask at this point? You show up late at night dressed like a hooker with Jim Gordon and the then you start talking to me about some twisted sex dungeon club?"

"I-" She started to explain, but he didn't let her speak.

"I mean really, what am I supposed to say here? What the hell am I even supposed to think?" He yelled.

"Harvey-"

"Do you have any idea how worried I was getting when you wouldn't answer my calls?" His voice grew louder with each word, until he finished and pulled in a breath as he went to take a drink and try to get control of himself.

"Oh, I'm sorry daddy… did I miss curfew?" Bird asked with venom in her tone and Harvey sputtered and coughed as he nearly choked on the drink he'd taken.

"You realize that's what you sound like, right?" She yelled back at him, before deepening her voice as she dramatically mimicked, "Do you have any idea what time it is? That dress is too short and no way are you wearing those boots out in public! Do you know how many times I tried to call you?"

He continued to stare at her with a stunned expression, with his mouth dumbly hanging half open; unable to choose his next words.

"My own dad didn't get to tell me how to dress or dictate who I spent my time with, let alone how late I was going to stay out and I'll be damned if you think you're going to control that." Bird hissed.

"I'm not trying to control you." Harvey argued, shaking his head back and forth.  
It appeared like traces of his former rage was gone as he spoke to her now.

"I'm just trying to figure out why you're out so late at night with Jim, and why you wouldn't answer when I tried to call you. Yeah, I know you like your freedom and I'm not trying to tell you what to do… but as you've pointed out before our lives aren't normal." Harvey explained, "When you're not home by a certain time and I can't reach you, it's not like my thoughts go straight to you being held over at work or something. No, my first thought is that something went wrong and Falcone has hurt or killed you. That something went wrong and you're lying bleeding to death somewhere and I wouldn't have the first clue where to look."

A shamed look darkened her features and she lowered her head some, pulling her eyes away from his.

Deep down she knew he had a point and while she didn't care for the way he'd flown off the handle over it, she did understand why he was so upset.  
He didn't trust her the same way he used too. After knowing how much she'd lied to him, how could he?  
Thinking about how she still hadn't owned up to kissing Jim, she internally conceded that maybe she didn't deserve to be trusted.

"You gotta talk to me here." Harvey pleaded, resting his hands on the counter and watching her, "I'm not so sure where we even stand anymore. You say you're all in, we bought a house together –the house you wanted, and then you're hardly ever here. I thought you wanted this."

"I do." She argued, slowly raising her head to face him.

"Do you? Because I've got to be honest here, half the time I feel like you're trying to sabotage us –sabotage yourself." Harvey explained, "I swear it feels like you purposely do things you know are going to cause a rift between us so we end up fighting. I don't even know what you want anymore."

"I want you!" Bird loudly exclaimed, "What part of that don't you understand?"

"Why haven't you moved things out of your apartment?" He pushed, "You said you were going to start clearing it out so it could be leased out to someone else."

"I'm working on it." She lied.

He scoffed, knowing better than to believe her about it.

"We can't do this, Starling." He sighed, "How are we supposed to start our lives together if you're still trying to keep a separate life away from me?"

"I'm so close, Harvey." Bird admitted, "Falcone's reign of terror is nearly over, everything is about to change and I'm almost free. I need you to just hang in there with me a little bit longer."

 **~(The next morning)~**

Unlocking the door to his office while juggling some folders and a piping hot cup of coffee in his hand, Sid Bunderslaw walked in and reached for the light switch. When the room was lit up, he nearly jumped when he saw someone sitting in his office chair.

"Good morning!" Bird greeted with a smile, as she appeared perfectly relaxed in the room with her legs propped up on the side of his desk like she owned the place.

"Miss Wayne?" He said, looking from where she was sitting back to the door behind him.

Clearing his throat he asked, "What can I help you with?"

"Tell me… did you drop your kids daughters off at school this morning, or was it your lovely wife?" Bird asked, keeping the smile on her face as she spoke, "Good choice on sending the little angels to private school… the public school system in Gotham is a mess."

"What do you think you're doing-" He started to say as he walked into the office further and set the folders and coffee down on his desk with a growing angry expression on his face.

"I do wonder how your wife would react to finding out how you're spending upwards of three thousand a month on an uptown townhouse for your mistress." Pulling a breath between her teeth, Bird added, "I'd guess she wouldn't take it too well."

"You're threatening me?" He observed, trying to not look shaken by how much she knew about him and his family.

"You sent someone into my family's home and someone important to me almost died." Bird stated flatly and Bunderslaw argued, "I didn't intend for anyone to be hurt."

"Yes, well, that's often what happens when you start digging around in someone else's life… people tend to get hurt. Innocent people." Bird said, as she dropped her legs to the floor and scooted up to the desk.

"My brother is a child, not much older than your own kids and he really got you so spooked that you had to send someone in to spy on him?" Bird scoffed, "That's pathetic, Mr. Bunderslaw."

"As I told the board, your brother is a special case-"

"Yes and now you're trying to convince him that our father was involved in criminal activity-"

"He was."

When Bird's lips pressed into a thin line, he gave a smile as he said, "Seems like the apple didn't fall too far from the tree with that one." Leaning down he placed his hands on the desk and stared her down as he spoke, "Looks like you're not the only one who's been doing their homework. We were more worried about what your brother had found out and what he'd do with the information –he is the smart one in the family after all, right? He's a Wayne."

"Ooh, taking a stab at my being adopted, eh? Bet you thought that knife would cut deep." She teased, before asking, "So you've been having me watched?"

"We know you're no saint, pretty far from it in fact. My guess is with our best people on it, it wouldn't take more than a few days to round enough information and evidence that you'd spend the next twenty-years in Blackgate." Waving a hand he said, "Of course, I'm sure that won't be necessary. Your brother might be the smart one, but I'm guessing you still have enough smarts to understand how very real that threat is."

"My brother is the smart one." Bird smiled, "Book smart mainly and a hell of an understanding for business. I'm smart too though, just my area of expertise is a different one."

Standing up and speaking in an unwavering voice, she said, "So let's get something straight, if you ever send someone to infiltrate my brother's life again or threaten to bring harm to anyone that I care about. I will bring you to your knees."

Her voice raised as she continued, "I know what you're thinking, that I don't look like the kind of person who would be capable of hurting someone else. You must be thinking that I don't have it in me to hurt your wife, or children… but you'd be wrong Mr. Bunderslaw. Even if I didn't have the stomach to do it myself, I know plenty of people who would relish in the opportunity."

"You need to think long and hard about what it is that you're saying to me-"

"Or what?" Bird hissed, "You'll have me gunned down in an alley?"

"I had nothing to do with your parents murders." He asserted, "I knew your father very well and his death was a personal loss as well as a huge loss to the entire company."

"Well you see, after what you did; your hands are stained with Alfred's blood and I don't believe a single word leaving your mouth." Bird harshly said, before she straightened her stance and smoothed her dress out. Letting the room fall into silence for a few moments before she added, "I get it, you've got friends in high places… but if you know as much about me as you claim to –then you'd know it's _my_ friends in very low places that should concern you."

Picking up the framed picture of his family from his desk, Bird laid it flat on the surface and pointed a finger to his son as she clicked her tongue and said, "I'd really hate for something to happen to that darling son of yours.

Pulling in a breath she added, "But as the saying goes, the sins of the father are paid for by the son… and I know my brother is paying for our father's."  
With that she brushed past him on her way out of the office and didn't look back.

Just as she walked outside of the building and headed for where she'd parked her car, her phone started to ring from her purse, when she looked to see who was calling she came to a stop and could have sworn her heart completely stopped beating.

It was Edward Nygma calling her, no doubt to deliver the results of the paternity test he'd promised to run as soon as possible for her.

As she flipped her cellphone open, her thumb hovered over the answer button but she couldn't bring herself to answer the call; she wasn't ready to know the truth yet. Finally it stopped ringing and she continued to stare at the screen until there was a chime and an alert letting her know she had a voicemail.

Swallowing hard, she closed her phone and slid it back into her purse deciding she'd listen to the results later on. Bird felt like whether the results would say Falcone was her father or if he wasn't and it was just her attempt at trying to make sense out of nonsense –there was a feeling of finality with the situation that she wasn't ready to face… not yet.

 **~(Days later)~**

" _The gang war rages on here in Gotham. No one knows what set this bloody turf war off, but it's commonly believed to be the result of the longtime power struggle between Salvatore Maroni and Carmine Falcone."_

Bird raised the remote and shut off the television news report as she looked over to her brother who hadn't been paying attention to the news. He'd been going through books in their father's office looking for some kind of clue.  
Ever since his encounter with Lucius Fox, he hadn't been able to shake the feeling that the man had been telling him the truth –trying to steer him on the right path by saying that Thomas Wayne was a stoic and kept the best part of himself hidden.

Walking over to the desk, Bruce picked up a framed picture of his father and slammed it down to break the glass out of the frame, before quickly dissembling it and sighing when he didn't find anything hidden.

"Still looking for secrets are we, sir? Or just breaking stuff?" Alfred asked, as he entered the room upon hearing sounds of breaking glass.

"I think he's doing both." Bird spoke up, and Bruce shot her look as he argued, "Secrets."

"Well, I don't know." Alfred sighed, "The whole city is going doolally around us. I mean, there's a bloody war on the streets and you're in here worrying about your poor old dad."

"Yes, I am." Bruce asserted, as he stared down to the picture of his father in his hand.

"If your father had a secret life, which I hasten to add; he didn't, but if he had… I'd have known about it wouldn't I?" Alfred asked.

"Everyone has secrets, Alfred." Bird stated, walking over and trailing her fingers over the spines of the books on a shelf as she spoke, "Some people are just better at hiding them than others."

"Stop it, the both of you." He ordered, "Now, your father was a sober, diligent man. Never out gallivanting around, home every night, like clockwork –working, in this very room." Alfred reminded them.

"I remember." Bruce nodded, "I wasn't allowed to disturb him while he was working."

"No one was." Bird agreed, "In fact, he'd completely ignore me when he was in here. There was one night I beat on the door for close to ten minutes and he wouldn't even respond to me." Her face wrinkled in confusion as she thought of how out of character that was for a man who tried his hardest to always be there for his family.

"Mom and I would read books or play board games until he was done." Bruce recalled, "And he'd have classical music playing for hours."

"That's right." Alfred nodded.

Turning to his sister, Bruce thought of what she'd said and agreed, "I tried to sneak in once to see him, but the door was locked. Was it always locked?"

"As far as I know." She nodded and Alfred said, "Yeah, well, I suppose so when he was working."

"Why, though?" Bruce asked.

"That's what doors are for, isn't it?" Alfred replied, seeming un-amused by the developments being made.

"But what was he doing in here that was so important… so secretive that he would always lock the rest of us out?" Bird thought out loud, looking to her brother as she admitted, "I think you might be onto something, little brother."

"Don't encourage this." Alfred sighed, looking at her.

"It's in this room, I just know it." Bruce announced, determination strong in his voice, "My father's secret is in this room."

 **~(The next day)~**

"Sorry for just dropping by." Barbara apologized as she walked into Bird's new house and her friend shut the door behind her, the blonde continued, "I checked by your apartment, but there was no answer so I thought you might be here." With a nod of approval she continued, "You've got the place looking a lot better."

Bird stared at her with widened eyes, she'd been trying to get in contact with Barbara since Jim had saved her from The Ogre.

"I have been calling you nonstop, B. I was so worried about you." Bird admitted, as she sat down on the couch next to her and said, "I'm sorry about your parents."

"That's nice." She said with a smile that clashed with the almost dazed look in her eyes as she continued, "It's nice to have friends; to have people concerned about you."

Changing the conversation topic she looked around and said, "You're all moved in now?"

"Uh…" Bird breathed, with a confused expression as she let out a heavy sigh and nodded, "Pretty much, yeah. There's still a few rooms on the third floor that need painted and we've been having some trouble keeping the heat running when temperatures dip really low at night; but other than that –yeah, we're both living here."

Eyeing her for a few minutes, Bird finally said, "You don't seem like yourself, Barbara."

"That's funny." She said with a small laugh, "I feel more like myself than I ever have before." Still seeming almost dazed she added, "It's a difficult feeling to describe, but I feel like I'm coming to life, you know? It's like everything up until I met Jason was a dream and then I finally woke up –he woke me up."

"Jason… as in The Ogre… as in the serial killer who murdered your parents and almost claimed your life as his next victim?" Bird carefully questioned.

"Yes." Barbara nodded, standing up as she walked over to a wall and trailed her fingers over the smooth green paint she commented, "I love this color, did you pick it out?"

"I did." Bird answered, her head cocked to the side unsure of what to say to her friend next. A problem she'd never really had with her before.

"When you were growing up, did your parents let you paint your room any color you wanted to?" Barbara asked, walking over to the fire place and picking up a framed picture of Bird and Harvey as she spoke.

"Yeah, we never argued about that sort of stuff." Bird shrugged, "I guess they figured when it came to me they'd have bigger battles to fight than what color I wanted to paint the walls."

"I wasn't allowed to, my parent's wouldn't allow it." Barbara explained, "The walls of my room were this pristine white, some days I'd just lay there and stare at them. I felt like I was in a damn hospital or something. And you know, when I was a teenager I tried to hang up some posters –normal stuff, bands and movies I liked and the very next day they had the maid tear them all down. They controlled everything in my life –what friends I could have, what music was acceptable to listen to, what clothes I could wear…"

Her voice trailed off and she turned back to Bird as she asked, "Did you know my mom even controlled the food I ate when I was home? Yeah, she used to call me her little piggy when I was a kid, she had me on my first diet by the time I was eleven."

"That's really sick and screwed up." Bird said, and Barbara nodded, "She never nurtured my self-esteem and my father would just let her say and do whatever she wanted."

Remembering back to the night they died, Barbara said, "Jason wanted me to tell them how I felt before they died, he tied them up and had me tell them everything that came to mind and they still didn't understand me, not one bit." Pulling in a breath she loudly exhaled and complained, "Such fools."

Standing up Bird walked over to her and said, "If I ask you something, you'll answer me truthfully right?"

"Of course, B." Barbara smiled, "You are my best friend after all."

"Did Jason kill your parents… or did you kill them?" Bird quietly asked.

"I thought he was going to kill them, the entire drive to their house and then when we got there and he had them tied up. He told me I was going to do the honors… that it was a gift, the first step in reinventing myself and to stop hiding from the world." She recalled, "God, I remember I felt so sick… I really thought I was going to vomit and the strangest thing happened… the more I talked to them, completely unleashed everything I was feeling; the more I started to like the idea of them dying. If they were dead than they could no longer have any control over me."

"It's almost poetic." Barbara said with a sad smile on her glossed lips, "All my life they kept chipping away at my soul, having no idea who I was and still it was like they were trying to make me disappear… and then in the end, I killed them. The monster they created ended up being the death of them."

"I'm just having a little trouble here." Bird admitted with an unhinged sounding laugh, "Trying to see how you went from someone completely terrified when you saw me kill someone –to someone who kills their own parents." Holding a hand up she agreed, "Albeit, it's not like they didn't have it coming, but still… what happened?"

Sitting back down in one of the plush chairs, Barbara motioned for Bird to sit down and she took a seat on the couch and nodded for her to explain.

"You know what it's like to wear a mask every single day, don't you?" Barbara asked, but it sounded more like a statement. "To hide who you are from everyone...even yourself?"

When Bird remained silent and gave no indication of an answer, Barbara asked, "Have you ever met someone who just instantly saw through that mask? Someone who could just look into your soul and see everything you were hiding? All of the darkness and all of the bad in you, with one look from them and it's suddenly all out on display? Do you know what that's like?"

Swallowing hard Bird admitted, "Yeah, I know what that's like." She'd only truly had that happen to her once, when she met Oswald. They'd immediately known what was inside the other and it was something she'd never felt before and hadn't felt with anyone since.

"Scary, isn't it?" Barbara smiled, "That's how it was when I met Jason, it felt like I was naked with nowhere to hide –scary, but thrilling."

"I know what you mean. Everything you're saying, I understand it and I've been there. Even that feeling of slowly waking up, the feeling like you're coming to life…" Bird nodded, but her lips angled down into a frown as she said, "A word of advice from someone who's been there –the bad catches up with you. Not at first, maybe not for years, but this path you're on doesn't lead anywhere good, B. This life changes you and maybe even so slowly that you don't even realize it's happening, until one day it just hits you all at once and by the time you reach that point… I'm not so sure there's any way to go back."

"I don't need to go back." Barbara said, "I just need to get my life on track again, and get Jim back." Her eyes seemed to light up as she said, "You were there! You saw it, when Jason put a knife to my throat and the look in Jim's eyes –the thought of losing me, it was tearing him apart." Nodding, she continued, "Or I at least in those moments I thought he still loved me. It's sort of funny, in a ' _it's been right under my nose' sort of way'_."

"What are you talking about?" Bird asked, finding it usually hard to follow her train of thought.

"All this time, I've been worried about Lee, you know? But then outside of my parent's house, I was sitting on the back of an ambulance with my neck bleeding and through the flashing lights, you know what I saw?" Barbara asked.

Not giving Bird a chance to reply, she answered her own question, "You. I saw you and then I saw Jim. I was sitting there cut and bleeding and across the way I see Jim put his coat around you. I was hurt wounded and yet he was more concerned about you."

"I don't really think you're thinking clearly-" Bird began to argue, but was cut off.

"I can see everything now so much better. Like I was handed a sparkly new pair of glasses!" She exclaimed, "I used to just think you got under his skin the way criminals always did, you know? But that's not really the whole story, is it?"

"Why don't you ask me what you're really wanting to ask me then?" Bird finally said, a smile spreading over her lips as she grew increasingly amused with the new version of her friend, "We're the best of friends after all."

"You like him, don't you?" Barbara asked, a smile spreading over her own lips as she intently watched Bird's reaction to the question.

"I tried not to." Bird admitted, "But he's just one of those people where as much as you want to hit them for being stupid, you sorta have to keep saving their life first."

"That's not what I mean." Barbara pointed out, leaning forward some as she repeated, "You _like_ him."

"We're friends." Bird said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, come on, B." Barbara clicked her tongue and seemed disappointed when she reminded her, "You asked me the hard questions and I was honest with you. You see, this whole time I've been crying to you about my poor broken heart, I kept seeing it in your eyes. Guilt. At first I thought you just felt sorry for me and then knowing he'd started seeing Lee, but it's deeper than that. Something happened, didn't it?"

"I love you, you know that?" Bird pointed out, with an arched brow, "I wouldn't have stepped foot into a place like The Foxglove for just anyone. I've got maybe a handful of people that I actually care about-"

"I love you too, B." She smiled, before pointing out, "But that doesn't answer my question."

"We kissed." Bird finally admitted. The words leaving her mouth like a cough, carrying the sickness and weight of guilt with them.  
She'd been so sick of keeping that from everyone and while the admission should have been made to Harvey, the air felt less heavy in admitting it to anyone.

"That wasn't so hard now was it?" Barbara laughed, leaning forward in her seat, she arched a brow as she questioned in a low voice, "How was it?"

"It was one time." Bird sighed, giving her friend an un-amused expression and not playing along, she then stated, "We both agreed later on that it was a mistake."

"How angry with me are you?" Bird questioned.

"I'm not angry." Barbara said, before conceding and holding up her finger and thumb as she brought them close together and admitted, "Well, maybe a teensy bit, but you are my best friend the fact of the matter is that Jim isn't coming home to you every night. He's shacked up with Lee. She's the problem, not you."

"Are you even so sure you still want him back, after everything?" Bird questioned.

"Yes, I'm sure. We're meant to be together, we had a life planned and it's still the life I want." She confidently said, before reaching a hand to the still healing wound on her neck as she stood up and said, "I'm late for my appointment."

As Bird stood up too, Barbara walked over and gave her hug as she said, "It was great to see you best friend."

"I'm glad you came by." Bird said honestly, returning the hug and starting to feel like it was impossible for her to be friends with people who weren't destined to become killers, "I missed you."

"I missed you too!" Barbara exclaimed as she stepped back from the hug and apologized, "I'm sorry I didn't return your calls, I just needed some time alone to sort through my thoughts." Bird nodded and said goodbye as she watched her leave.

It was just a few minutes later that Harvey came home from work, shutting the door behind him he called out, "Was that Barbara I saw leaving?"

"Yes." Bird said, as she walked over and raised up to kiss him with a smile on her lips from how much she loved being there when he got home from work.

When it came to living together they were still trying to figure a few things out, it was an adjustment for them both, but overall they were happy. The house was almost completely finished and aside from the unreliable heating and occasional light flickering from the parts of the wiring that still needed replaced, even Harvey had come to love the house itself.

"How is she?" He questioned, giving her a smile back as he shrugged out of his coat and hung it up in the closet.

"She's…uh, well, she's still trying to work through some things." Bird answered vaugly, and Harvey nodded as he reasoned, "I'd bet so. She went through a horrible ordeal, probably going to take some time to get back to normal.

"You have no idea." Bird nearly silently breathed as she turned and walked into the living room with Harvey behind her.

He watched as she picked her leather jacket up from the back of the couch and questioned, "You're going somewhere?"

When she nodded but didn't give a verbal answer, he said, "I know we agreed that I wouldn't pry… but Starling, there is a city wide gang-war being fought out there and every time you walk out the door, it leaves me terrified that you won't walk back through it."

"I'm okay, Harvey." She assured him, "I can more than handle myself out there."

"I know, but things are different now. I don't know what plan you had to go after Falcone in the first place, but this war has to have changed everything and…" His voice trailed off as he saw the look on her face and asked, "It did change everything, didn't it?"

With a sigh she said, "I told you things were going to get worse before they got better."

"Oh my god…" He breathed with a stunned expression, "Please tell me that part of your plan wasn't to ignite a war on the streets of Gotham; a war where innocent civilians could easy get caught in the crosshairs."

"Falcone and Maroni need to fight things out for a while, thin out each others loyal followers, but it won't last forever. Oswald and I have a plan and-" She began to say, but he didn't let her finish.

"And Cobblepot being part of the plan is the first in a very long list of what's wrong with it." He said, his jaw tensed in anger as he spoke. From the bits and pieces she'd been telling him about how she was working with Oswald to overthrow Falcone, he hated the reality of it more and more.

"I've got this, Harvey." Bird assured him, "I know you're worried and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid too, but we are so close to being out of the woods on this. So close, you just have to trust me and hang in there a little longer. Soon enough I'll be free from all of it."

"The more I know about what's going on, the less I like it." He admitted, as he gently tilted her chin up so she'd look him in the eyes.

"Then stop asking me about it." Bird said with an empathetic expression on her face as she stared up at him, knowing how hard it must be for him, but also knowing she and Oswald were truly in the final stretch of the run to take over Gotham.  
There was no going back now.

 **~()~**

Oswald looked down to the box on Bird's apartment floor that was packed with books and other belongings from her small bookcase in the living room.

Leaning down he picked up a black elegant looking picture frame and smiled as he saw it contained two invitations to the opening night of his club, side by side one showing the outside and the other turned to show the print inside.

"You framed this?" He said looking up as Bird walked back into the room with him.

"Of course." She said with a smile, before admitting, "Not sure where I'll be able to hang it up at the house where Harvey won't have to see it, but I'll figure something out. It's important to me."

"Truthfully…" Oswald breathed, as he gently laid the frame back in the box and raised back up to face her, "One aspect of taking over Gotham I never anticipated was how few times I'd be able to see you. This past year, I feel as though I've barely seen you."

Looking down he continued, "I got through it thinking how when it was all said and done, when the Don's had been deposed and we were on top that we'd once again be as we were."

"I didn't plan for this." Bird reminded him, "When we were making all those plans to take over Gotham, I never planned on meeting Harvey or wanting anything different. It just sort of happened." With a small shrug she continued, "You're right though, the way this year has been, I feel like I've barely seen you. It's strange when we spent years seeing each other every single day. I've missed you."

"Yes." He said with a short nod, "But hasn't it occurred to you that you're going to miss me a lot more with choosing a life away from me?"

"I'm choosing a life away from crime, not from you." Bird asserted, and with a sad smile Oswald asked, "But doesn't it go hand-in-hand, besides I can't imagine Harvey Dent is fond of us spending time together."

"You are my best friend, Oswald. You are a part of me and no one is going to keep us apart. I imagine it will be difficult to navigate our new lives at first, but once all the dust settles, we'll figure it out. We can still meet up-" Bird started to say, but the thoughts were already making the air feel too thick for Oswald to breath and he was left with a frantic feeling deep inside of him.

"We'll what?" He questioned, his voice raised, "Meet up once a month for tea? A weekly phone call that you'll soon enough be too busy with your new life to answer? That isn't who we are, Bird."

"You're right, it's not who we are." She agreed, "What we are isn't normal, can't you see that? The co-dependency and how thoughts of being kept apart make us both physically sick, it's not healthy. Maybe some time apart while we sort things out is actually going to turn out to be a good thing, put some space between us."

"That's what you want; to put space between us?" He exclaimed, staring at her with a hurt and angry expression, "You are my only true friend, Bird. The only person besides my mother who has ever cared about me. I don't need distance, I need you."

"I want to be able to function without you. Sometimes, I feel like we're so close that we're almost one person –like I can't tell where you end and I begin and I can't think straight like that." She admitted, her voice raising as she spoke with a sick feeling bubbling up inside of her empty stomach. "And think about it, you're going to be the King of Gotham –you're going to be running a city and at its core organized crime is business and you're going to be so busy trying to rebuild everything. You're probably going to be too busy for me anyway."

"I'd never be too busy for you." He confidently said, though his voice shook with emotion. "There was a time when I thought you felt the same."

"I won't be too busy." She defended, "We can work something out, like when we meet up you don't tell me about criminal activity and -"

"You will be too busy." He argued, his hands balled into fists at his sides, "You have already bought a house and I simply don't see a place for me in your married life-"

"He hasn't even proposed." Bird cut him off, but Oswald spoke loudly over her, "But he will!"

Pulling in a deep breath Oswald asked, "And you'll say yes, but is it because he truly owns your heart, or are you looking for someone to save you?"

"I love him." Bird proclaimed, as she stepped closer to her friend.

Acting like he hadn't heard her Oswald argued, "Perhaps you're just looking to him to fix you, but you don't need repaired, Bird. Yes, you've been falling –been drowning for quite some time now, but you always pull yourself back out. You're the sort of person who saves themselves."

"I'm not looking to be saved." She said with her eyebrows knotted with emotion, "Can you please just stop trying to make me feel bad for growing up and realizing I want something else out of my life? Losing my parents and everything that happened after changed things; changed me and put things into perspective. For years I kept digging myself deeper into a hole, and there wasn't a light at the end of the tunnel –there was just darkness and I couldn't see a way past it."

Shrugging she sighed, "Harvey ended up being the one who helped me see a different path, a different version of myself and you know what? Maybe in some ways I do look to him to save me, I'm not sure… but what we have works. What we have isn't perfect and it feels like things are either really good or really bad, but being with him is exactly where I want to be."

"You think it's that simple?" Oswald questioned, his eyes growing dark, "Simply wash the blood from your hands and your past will go with it? People don't charge. Not really. They can change their clothes and their hair and pretend to be something they aren't; but at their core they never truly change." Motioning to her, he continued, "We are what we are, Bird. The people we are inside; what drives us and what destroys us doesn't change because we want it too."

"Maybe it really is for the best, us parting ways when this is all said and done." Bird whispered, tears stinging her eyes from the thought of not having him in her life anymore, but she was trying to be different –to be better and as deeply as she cared about him, he wasn't good for her.

"Easier for you to pretend you're something different without remnants of your old life around?" He asked, with an arched brow.

He started to walk past her towards the door of her apartment, but he came to a stop just beside her as he reminded her, "I know you better than anyone else ever has and ever will."

 **~()~**

"Hey… what are you doing in here?" Harvey questioned as he found Bird in one of the spare rooms on the third floor that hadn't been painted yet. Stepping farther into the room, he watched her as she laid flat on her back, on the floor, staring up to the ceiling. "Are you okay?"

Sitting up she nodded as she looked down to the phone in her hand and said, "I, uh…" Pulling in a deep breath she watched as he sat down on the floor with her, "I have this voicemail that I'm trying to get up the nerve to listen to."

Her eyes locked with his and she admitted, "I had a test ran because I think Carmine Falcone might be my biological father."

"What?" He asked, his eyes wide as he stared at her.

"In the grand scheme of things it makes sense –the way he acts and how he's spared my life and protected me. Some of the things he says and the way he says them… there's moments when I feel like it makes perfect sense and other times when I think I just might be crazy." Bird admitted with a weak laugh on her lips.

"I don't think you should listen to the results." Harvey finally said, concern flooding over his features as he questioned, "What good could possibly come from it?"

"It might explain a lot, you know? Like how I always felt more at home out in Gotham than I did in the walls of Wayne Manor, the way I adapted to a criminal life so easily –it would make more sense if my father was actually the biggest crime boss in all of Gotham." Bird reasoned, but it didn't set well with Harvey.

"I still don't think you should listen to it. Starling, you're almost free from that life… what if he really is your father? Then what?" He asked, reaching out and taking her hand in his as he continued, "Once you know something, you can't un-know it… and after everything and as far as you've come, I don't see how anything positive could come out of this."

"You don't get it-" She started to say, but he cut her off, "I know people say that not knowing is the worst part, but in this case I'm not so sure it is."

"No, you just don't get it." She complained, looking down to their connected hands before her eyes drifted back up to his face. With a weak shrug and emotion thick in her voice she admitted, "When I was a kid, I was always looking for my birth parents in crowds of people. Studying stranger's faces and trying to find something familiar, find someone who looked like me and when I'd catch someone with a similar nose or hair color… I'd stand a little taller, you know? Stiffen my posture and smooth out my clothes, trying to look my absolute best just in case." Her eyes burnt from tears, but she didn't let the salt water leave her eyes as she quickly blinked them away and admitted, "Sometimes I still do that."

It hurt him to see her like that, his lips were angled down into a frown and his eyes full of concern for her as he listened to what she had to say and wished he could take the pain from her.

"Have you looked into your adoption paperwork?" He finally asked, hoping and praying that Falcone wasn't her father. He was afraid it might set her back.

"I've tried." She admitted, "I couldn't find anything."

"Nothing at all?" His eyebrows raised with the question.

"Nothing." Bird nodded, "I guess when you have as much money as my parents you can make that stuff disappear. It makes you wonder thought, right? Why they'd not only have the adoption records sealed, but apparently also either destroyed or hidden… why go to the trouble unless they were trying to either hide something from me… or hide me from someone."

"It is strange." He finally agreed, "But what happens if the test says that he is your father?"

"Nothing changes." Bird confidently said, "I'm going to continue to tear apart his organization from the inside out. I'll do what I have to do."

"You really believe that?" He asked. There wasn't any disbelief or judgment in his voice, just a question that he not only wanted the answer to, but wanted her to give some thought too as well.

"Yes." She nodded, though her voice almost sounded alien to her own ears as she spoke.

"So you're going to listen to the results?" He asked, but he could already tell from the look on her face what the answer was.

"I think I've put it off long enough." She breathed with another small, fragile laugh, "I had the test done a while ago."

"Do you want me to stay or go?" Harvey quietly asked, his voice barely over a whisper as the house suddenly seemed to be filled with a heavy silence.

"You can stay." Bird answered, swallowing hard as she spoke and looked at him one last time before slowly opening up her cellphone and taking a deep breath trying to prepare herself for the truth –whatever that would be.

* * *

 **A/N – Thanks for reading! I hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!**

 **If you're not already, you can follow me on Tumblr (twofacedharveydent).**

 **And I owe a big thank you to Shadow knight1121, SwingingOnAStar, Melody Jane,** **Lisaishere, Miss E Charlotte and guest for reviewing since my last update. Thank you all so much for the support!**


	50. Mafia Princess

**L**

 _"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina_

* * *

"Bird." Don Falcone greeted as he walked into one of the sitting rooms in his mansion and found her looking out of the window.

As she turned to face him, he saw she appeared slightly disheveled, her hair didn't appear to be combed and there were dark circles under her eyes, not to mention the clothes she was wearing were wrinkled as if she'd slept in them.

"Forgive me for saying this, but you don't look at all put together today." He observed, waiting on her explanation.

"No, I can't imagine I do." She agreed, glancing down at herself before she said, "I had a pretty rough night, Don Falcone."

"Everything is okay now, I hope?" He asked, taking a drink of his coffee.

"When you went to your doctors appointment weeks ago, I paid someone there to get me a vial of your blood." Bird admitted, her eyes locked in a harsh stare on him as she spoke.

Raising his eyebrows he took another drink of his coffee and asked, "Ah, I see…and now why would you do a thing like that?"

"To have a friend test it against my blood –a paternity test." She explained, feeling anger start to bubble up inside of her as she spoke to him. With an unhinged laugh she held her arms out to the side and said, "Congratulations, you have a daughter… but something tells me you already knew that."

Setting his coffee cup down on a table, he started to walk closer to her, but she backed away angrily shaking her head back and forth as she said, "I spent my whole life wondering about my birth parents, thinking what I'd say if I ever met either of them. Then come to find out you're my father and you know, I spent all of last night thinking what I wanted to say to you and then I started thinking about how you backhanded me so hard that day at the club it was a wonder I didn't lose any teeth, and how you put Harvey in the hospital to punish me and now I don't even know what the hell I'm doing here, because I don't have anything to say to you."

"I'm sure you have plenty to say." He argued, watching her closely.

"I don't, but you should know that I spent the first five years of my life living in one hell after another –different orphanages and foster homes, each one was worse than the last. I was starved and beaten and… and I kept thinking that my parents had to have been dead to let me go through that." Trying to control her breathing, she shook her head back and forth as she muttered, "Whatever, it doesn't even matter."

"I thought you were dead." Falcone admitted, looking her over as he spoke. "For years, I looked far and wide for you… but the one thing Gotham is overflowing with is homeless children and I-"

"It doesn't matter." She cut him off, violently shaking her head back and forth, "I don't care."

"You do or you wouldn't be here." He argued with her.

With that she started to walk past him and out of the doors, but he called after her, "You have to understand that I didn't know you were still alive until you were twelve."

Turning around she said, "That was nine years ago and considering we met when I was seventeen that still gave you plenty of time to tell me."

Ignoring what she'd said he continued, "There was a community fundraiser event in the park, in the spring that year and your school put on this play." He remembered, with a small smile, "A forty-five minute production of As You Like It, and you played Rosalind. I knew the minute I saw you that you were my daughter."

"I don't care." She stammered, turning back and trying to leave again but what he said next brought her to a stop.

"You look just like your mother."

Slowly, Bird turned back around to face him with an unreadable expression on her face, the only identifiable emotion was pain.

"Who was she?" Bird demanded to know.

"When I met her she was going by the name, Lilly Ainsworth." His eyes fell to the floor as he continued, "I didn't know until after you had both disappeared that she'd been using her mother's maiden name as a guise."

"What was her real name?" Bird pushed for information.

"Lilith Wayne."

"W-what?" Bird breathed, taking a stumbling step backwards as she shook her head back and forth and Falcone nodded as he explained, "Your adopted father had an older sister. Thomas and Martha Wayne were actually your aunt and uncle."

"That's not possible!" Bird argued, "I've never heard that name before-"

"No, I wouldn't imagine that you had." He agreed, clearing his throat as he motioned to the chair across from the one he was sitting down in and Bird slowly walked over to sit across from him.

"When I first met Lilly, she was beautiful, smart… full of life." He remembered with a fond smile, "She'd just started work at a small café I used to frequent, and she was kind to me. I was instantly drawn to her and it wasn't romantic, not at first, no, we'd forged a friendship, a bond that wasn't like anything I'd felt before. I had lost my wife several years prior and I guess maybe I was seeking out some companionship. Of course, in a city a hundred enemies just waiting to tear me down, it wasn't long until one of them threatened her life to hurt me and I moved her in here so she'd be safe and we only grew closer."

"I always felt like she kept a part of herself hidden; she was guarded –but then again so was I." Falcone explained, "Then I started to notice and pick up on different things with her –she became increasingly paranoid, but who wouldn't be after a threat was made on their life? She would be so happy and energetic and then the smallest thing would send her tail-spinning down and she'd go for days, sometimes weeks without speaking to anyone and wouldn't leave her room –I made excuses for that too. You see, I had all of the signs right in front of me, but I chose not to see them."

"What signs?" Bird breathed, her voice shaking as she stammered, "W-what are you talking about?"

"She was sick." He simply said, swallowing hard and looking down as he folded his hands in his lap and let out a heavy sigh, "Before her return to Gotham under a different name, she'd been in and out of several mental health institutions-"

"No." Bird shook her head back and forth, "You're lying… if Lilith Wayne had truly existed than I would have known, I would have heard the name at some point… it's not true."

"It is true." He said, his voice loud with conviction as he spoke. Taking a deep breath he calmed down some, "I know this must be hard for you, but you wanted the truth, right?"

Slowly she nodded her head, unable to make eye contact with him now.

"Her parents; your grandparents -kept her hidden away for the most part. From what I came to understand, she spent her youth in a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland –her parents bought a house there for when they'd visit." Falcone said, and Bird's head jerked up as she looked at him and said, "We have a chalet in Switzerland… it's about twenty minutes away from a private pay sanatorium…" Swallowing hard she asked, "Okay, so she had problems… that doesn't explain anything, it doesn't explain to me why my family would act like she never existed."

"It's all business –think about it. Wayne Enterprises is a multi-national company worth not just millions, but billions of dollars, your grandparents kept Lilly out of the spotlight because of how her mental illness would have reflected back on the Wayne name; on the company." He said and she could feel her heart starting to break apart inside of her chest, thinking of how her birth mother must have felt, being her family's dirty little secret. Locked away in another country while they tried to forget she even existed.

"You uh, you… you keep talking about her in past tense, so she's dead, right?" Bird finally gathered the strength to ask.

The room remained silent for a painfully long time, so long in fact that Bird was starting to think he was done sharing information and wasn't going to answer her, but then he finally cleared his throat and admitted, "I believe so."

"You're not sure?" Bird asked him, her brown eyes wide as she spoke.

"There's more to the story, more that you need to know." Falcone said, as he stood up and walked over to the table near the door where there was a pitcher of ice water. Pouring himself a glass he slowly nursed the glass –like he was trying to delay telling her the rest of the story for as long as possible.

Finally he sat the empty glass back down on the tray and turned back to face Bird as he said, "By the time she'd gotten pregnant with you… whatever it was that was going on inside of her head, her problems had drastically increased and it was no longer just little abnormal ticks, or the highs and lows… she was going into manic episodes. Tearing rooms apart looking for something and then not able to remember what it even was that she was searching for. I saw her talking to herself at times, completely lost in delusions." With a pained expression he remembered, "One night she took a baseball bat to the mirrors and when I finally got the bat away from her, forced her to stop and asked her what the hell she was doing… she told me that she had to break them because her reflection wasn't mirroring what she was doing." Shaking his head like he still couldn't come to terms or believe it he continued in a voice just above a whisper, "She said the woman in the mirror was telling her to do bad things, violent things and she was trying to make the voices stop."

"Why didn't you get her help?" Bird demanded to know, her eyebrows lowered and an angry expression on her face.

"I tried, but she was already pregnant and there wasn't much the doctors could do. Most of the medication she'd need could have harmed you, so we just tried to keep her calm." With a shrug he quietly said, "I did everything I knew how to do. Hired on medical staff to watch her around the clock and for a while I thought things were better until…"

"Until what?" Bird asked, feeling like she was quite possibly asking a question that she didn't want the answer to.

"I don't think she even understood what she was doing." He began to say, "She got out one night, somehow slid right past the medical staff and my guards. She could be absolutely silent when she needed to be" He remembered, eyeing Bird as he spoke, "She tied a cement block to her ankle and climbed up on the railing of Gotham Bridge, there were witnesses –said she hugged the block to her chest and jumped. A few people dove in after her and managed to save her, but she nearly lost you that night. By the time I'd gotten to the hospital, she'd been completely sedated and your little heartbeat was so faint that at first they couldn't even hear it. They didn't think you were going to make it, but through the night you got stronger –my little fighter, you were barely hanging on but you were tougher than the doctors thought."

"After that, we kept her in the hospital, kept her comfortable and sedated until you were born nearly a few months later-"

"You mean you held her prisoner." Bird corrected and his gaze fell heavy on her as he reminded her, "I told you before, everything I've done has been to help you. I did what I had to do to keep you safe."

Bird's head felt like it was about to explode from all the newly learned information. Her head ached and her heart felt heavy.

Somehow finding the strength to speak again, she tried her best to sound apathetic as she sharply said, "As much as I love a tragic love story… fast forward, I'm still dying to know why I spent the first years of my life in an orphanage."

"After you were born, I flew in the best doctors to help Lilly and things settled back down. It took a few weeks but they eventually found the right combination of medications to keep her moods level and she went back to being the woman she was when I first met her. Only, things were different… too much had happened. I still loved her, but not in the way I did before." Taking in a ragged breath he continued, "There was no question that you were going to stay here, stay with me –she wasn't fit to raise a child and being under my roof was the safest possible place for you to be. I offered to let her stay here as well, she already had a room and I was willing to let this place be her safe haven."

"The arrangement worked for weeks, looking back I'd say they were probably the best weeks of my entire life and then one night…" Letting out a heavy breath, he walked over and looked out of the window. "Then one night after dinner, she told me she was going to sleep in the nursery with you –in the rocking chair like she so often did. I didn't think anything of it, until the next morning when you were both gone and the guard I'd had posted outside of the room was dead. I looked everywhere, had all of my best people on the case… but it was almost as if neither of you had ever existed. There were no traces to follow –you'd vanished."

With a shrug he looked out of the window as he quietly said, "I thought you were both were dead. Lost every ounce of hope that I'd ever see you again… then twelve years later the impossible happened and there you were, right in front of me once again –alive and healthy."

"What was my name?" Bird asked, slowly getting to her feet and trying to ignore the shaky feeling in her knees.

"Carmina." He answered, as he looked back at her, "You're named after me."

"I always wondered what name I was born with, or if I'd even had one." Bird quietly said as she bit down on the inside of her cheek, "I never had a name in the orphanages –little nicknames and so on, but no real name. Not until I was adopted at five years old." With a shrug she continued, "I had a therapist once who had a theory that part of the reason I'm so messed up is because I started out my life with no real sense of self, that I didn't even have a name to identify with." Sighing she breathed, "Whatever."

Letting out an indiscernible noise, she raised her eyes from the floor and looked at him as she stated, "I like Bird better. The name Carmina means nothing to me and the name Starling never really felt like it belonged to me… but Bird is the name I picked for myself." Nodding like she was trying to convince herself of it she said under her breath, "I'm Bird."

"I tried to find you." He said, walking closer, but she shook her head back and forth as she accused, "Not good enough apparently. You're a Mafia Don, you practically had the whole city in your pocket –even twenty years ago. If you'd really wanted me then you'd have found a way."

"You don't know how wrong you are, my dear. I did everything within my power, for years. Turned over every single stone and didn't find a single answer and then I finally had to accept that you were gone. The only plausible explanation as to why I couldn't find a single trace of you or Lilly was that there weren't any traces left to find." Falcone argued with her, but he could tell by the look on her face that she didn't entirely believe him.

"I…" Bird breathed, rubbing her forehead, "I need to go home… shower, maybe sleep some or something. This is just too much."

As she reached the door to the room, Falcone said, "I haven't done many noble acts in my life, but I tried to do right by you. After I learned you were still alive, my first instinct was to get you back –you are my daughter after all. After I saw you in the play, I watched you for the rest of the afternoon. Saw you playing the carnival games with your friends from school, you were the best at all of them –winning one prize after another; which you traded in for something bigger. And then at the end of it all, I started towards you. I had no idea what I'd say or do, but before I got to you I saw you run to Thomas and Martha Wayne. They hugged you and you had the biggest smile on your little face and you had that big stuffed toy you'd traded all the little ones in for…" His voice trailed off as he tried to remember.

"It was an airplane." Bird remembered, glancing over her shoulder at him as she said, "I remember that day. Bruce was four… maybe five years old and I'd traded everything I'd won in for that blue plane toy to give to my brother."

Nodding Falcone continued, "Yes, I remember watching when you gave him the toy, because right after you did –you were still smiling and you looked at me; right at me and I could have sworn the whole world fell silent and stopped spinning for a few brief seconds until you looked back to them. The Wayne's loved you and you had a family, you looked so happy and it ripped my heart straight out of my chest, but I turned and walked away. I thought the Wayne's could offer you more than I could, and believed you'd be safer as a part of their family."  
He watched her as she refused to turn back around to look at him, he added, "I wanted something better for you than all of this and I tried to do the right thing by not interfering with your life, I tried to do right by you… and still here we are."

 **~(A few days later)~**

"I'm not going." Bird stubbornly said as she sat down on the side of their bed and watched Harvey pull a few luggage cases from the bottom of one of their closets.

"Just until this gang war is over." He pleaded, "You learned the truth… you talked to Falcone, it's over. Now all you have to do is stay out of dodge until the war is over-"

"I'm not running." Bird said, rubbing her forehead as she spoke and Harvey's face twisted with worry as he watched her.

For the past few days she'd barely gotten out of bed, she wouldn't give him many details of what had happened when she went to confront Falcone after learning he was her father –but it was easy enough to tell that whatever had happened –had left a lasting effect on her.  
It scared him; for the last several hours Bird had grown increasingly restless which had Harvey feeling like she was on the verge of doing something reckless. Now his first goal and priority was to get her out of Gotham before she had the chance.

"I already bought our plane tickets." He stated, as if that meant she didn't have a choice to decline the impromptu vacation out of town.

"Return them."

"Non-refundable."

"City hall switched their support to Maroni." Bird admitted, "Don Falcone got hit about ten minutes ago and from what I hear the hospital is already clearing out the east wing. In less than an hour he'll be dead."

"In the grand scheme of things, I guess one could argue that maybe somehow it's justice –everything he's done for so many years is finally catching up to him." Harvey tried to dismiss it, but she couldn't let it go that easily.

"He was supposed to be mine." She admitted, "The deal I'd worked with Oswald was when it came down to it… I was going to kill him."

"Starling…" He breathed, shaking his head and letting her know he didn't want to know anymore, but she kept talking. "Revenge for what he had done to you. I know you didn't want me to strike back, but I just couldn't let what he did slide. But… after finding out he's my real father…" Shrugging she breathed, "I left Oswald a message that night after I confronted Falcone, told him I wanted out and he was free to do what he wanted with Falcone and he's going to kill him. Now is his perfect opportunity to strike, he's probably preparing to make a move as we speak."

"You have to stop…" Harvey sighed, "I'm an officer of the court. You can't tell me these things –I have a legal and ethical duty to report it."

"I don't think I can let it happen." Bird said, not acknowledging what he said, "A part of me still hates him and wants him dead, but I don't think I can just sit here and let it happen anymore." Closing her eyes, she said through gritted teeth, "I know I said that finding out the results wouldn't change anything… but it did. My talk with him and learning the things I did… changed things."

"If what you're saying is true and the higher-ups at City Hall really okayed the hit on Falcone, then we're talking about everyone –all the important players switching their support to Maroni… which means they will kill anyone and everyone who stands in their way." He said, as he sat down next to her on the bed and faced her.

"For months, I've been trying to convince myself that I'm not as bad of a person as I thought I was. I've been trying to be better –find things inside of me that sets me apart from them and that's what this has all been about right? Me trying to change for the better? Harvey, if I just sit by and let this happen… than I'm no better than he is." Shaking her head, her red rimmed eyes met his as she confided, "I really want to be better, Harvey."

"Now?" He breathed, shaking his head, "You have to pick right now for this?"

With a weak smile she shrugged, "You know I have the worst timing with important things."

"This right here-" He said motioning to her, "Is why we should get out of town for a few days or a week. It scares me when you get that look in your eyes –that look like you're on a mission and it's all or nothing."

Taking her hands in his, he pleaded, "You can't do this, Starling."

"You are one of the most patient and understanding people that I've met… and forgiving." Bird smiled as she leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips, pulling back she said with an apologetic expression, "I just need you to keep being that understanding, patient and forgiving for a few more days."

"You do understand that's actually asking a hell of a lot more than it sounds like." He stated, as his eyes met hers.

"I know." She conceded, laying a hand on the side of his face and giving him another sad smile, before she stood up and started to pull her coat on. "I'm hoping this can all be resolved today, but it might be a few more before I can come back home to stay and…"

Her voice trailed off as she turned back around saw him kneeling on their bedroom floor, down on one knee.

"Harvey…" She breathed shaking her head, "Don't you-"

"I love you." He said loudly, cutting her off. Once he had her attention he continued, "I love you so much, Starling and I know that I'll never feel this way about anyone else again; and I… I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Displaying the ring box she'd found in his coat pocket weeks before, he took a deep breath he asked, "Will you marry me?"

"I love you too." Bird said, her expression twisting in emotion as she said, "No."

"No?" He asked, with a noise like the air had been knocked out of his chest.

"No." Bird repeated.

They stared at each other for what felt like an eternal minute before he asked, "Why not?"

"Harvey, please get up off the floor." Bird said, feeling like the conversation was awkward and painful enough without having to look down to speak to him.

"I don't understand." He breathed, as he got to his feet and looked down to the ring in the box, before his eyes met hers and he admitted, "I really didn't see this coming."

Bird put a hand over her mouth to hide the smile and try and hold in the small laugh at how completely stunned he looked, like her saying no was honestly the last thing he'd ever expect to happen.

"I'm not saying no because I don't want to marry you." Bird explained as she stepped up to him, "I'm saying no right now, because the only reason you're asking me is an attempt to get me to leave with you."

"That's not true." He argued, still holding the open ring box in his hands as he admitted, "I bought this ring a month ago… I've just been trying to find the perfect moment and-"

"I know." She smiled, cutting him off as she admitted, "I found the ring in your pocket the night of the charity ball." Reaching out and holding onto his hands with hers, she promised, "I want to spend the rest of my life with you too, but we can't start it like this. It doesn't feel right… you asking me to marry you in hopes I'll agree to leave Gotham for a while feels more like a business arrangement than some grand romantic gesture."

His eyes were locked with hers, until she reached down and pulled the ring box from his hand, closed it and slid it back into his pocket, then said, "Ask me again –when this all over."

"It would be much simpler and a lot less nerve-wracking if you just said yes now." He reasoned, but he knew deep down she was right. As much as he did want to marry her, in that moment in time he was asking for all the wrong reasons.

She opened her mouth to say that she had to go, to get to the hospital before it was too late for Falcone, but before she got the chance Harvey lowered his head and asked in a defeated tone, "Is there another reason you're saying no?"

Not giving her much of a chance to speak, he admitted with a despondent shrug, "I'm getting really tired of feeling like I'm competing against him when it comes to you."

"Harvey!" Bird exclaimed, shaking her head back and forth, "I know that night after The Foxglove looked bad, but Jim and I are just-"

"Jim?" Harvey cut her off, "What does this have to do with him?"

A blank expression fell over her face and Bird stammered, "W-who are we talking about?"

"Oswald!" Harvey yelled, rubbing his forehead and trying to keep the lid from blowing.

Seeming ever further perplexed from the admission, she asked, "You feeling like you're in competition with Oswald?"

"It feels like I'm losing." He admitted.  
He'd never been able to understand their friendship, or come close to comprehending how she couldn't see the type of person he was and how her association with him kept pulling her down.

"Haven't you ever heard the expression about comparing apples to oranges?" She sputtered, "What we have and what I have with Oswald is entirely different-"

"I know you say you're going to save Falcone, but when it really comes down to it Starling…" Running a hand through his hair he breathed, "When it comes down to it; I just asked you to marry me and you're running away from me and towards him."

"Harvey…"

"It doesn't matter what color you want to paint that, it doesn't change the facts." He argued, "You should be here with me, you know that? The city is at war and you claim that where you want to be is at my side, but actions speak louder than words and-"

"You're really wanting to get into this right now?" She scoffed, thinking to herself that now it was his impeccable bad timing messing the situation at hand up.  
She also wondered if he was only bringing this up now to try and stall her, keep her distracted until she wouldn't have a reason to run out the door.

He didn't say anything, only stared back at her. Though, no words needed to be spoke, she could read from the expression on his face what he was thinking.

"So this is it, huh?" Bird sighed, "The part where you tell me that it's either you or him?"

"I'm not saying that." Harvey stressed, "But you had to know things were going to come to a head, Starling. You're smart enough to know that you can't walk away from your old life without leaving people like Cobblepot in the past-"

"Don't." She warned, her jaw clenched, "Don't give me an ultimatum here, don't tell me to choose between you and Oswald. You don't want me to choose."

"So I guess that's my answer?" He breathed, wondering when the air in their room had gotten so think it was impossible to catch a breath.

"You're the one wanting me to choose, not him!" She accused.

"Because he's manipulating you at every turn and you can't see it because you have such a blind spot when it comes to him."

"I know exactly who Oswald Cobblepot is." Bird arched a brow as she spoke, "Harvey, I think you're the one with the blind spot -only when it comes to me. The last years of my life I have been neck deep in everything you've devoted your life trying to rid the city of."

"That's not what I see when I look at you." Harvey explained, taking a step towards her and reminding her, "I love you."

"And I love you!" She exclaimed, shaking her head and admitting, "And I don't understand why that's not enough. Why is it that I have to leave my best friend to prove that to you?"

There was a dullness to his eyes when his shoulders dropped forward in a helpless shrug when he realized, "You're still going to leave, aren't you?"

"I have to… before it's too late." Bird apologized, leaning up to kiss him and locking into memory how it felt when his arms slid around her and held her close; like he never wanted to let go.

"I will come back to you, I promise." Bird softly said, as she stared up into his eyes, "I love you."

"I love you too." He replied, leaning down until his forehead rested against hers. Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes and said, "But I can't keep doing this, Starling. Being scared to death that every time you walk out the door it's going to be the last time I see you. I can't live like that."

"And you won't have too, I just need-"

"A little more time… yeah, you've been saying that for months."

"But this is it." She said, pulling her face from his and looking frantic as she pleaded, "Don't give up on me now, Harvey. This is literally the end of this chapter of my life; the home stretch-"

"I'm not giving up." He said, his hands gently landing on her cheeks as he tilted her head up to face him, "But this is killing me, so when you come back here… it has to be to stay. Okay?"

"I won't come back until this is all over." Bird agreed, reaching up and holding onto his hands as she said, "I promise."

 **~()~**

A chill ran down her spine as Bird walked through the east wing of the hospital. Wheelchairs were left abandoned in the halls and there was paperwork scattered on the floor. Room doors were open and beds left unmade from where the staff had rushed to move all the patients to a different area.

Her footsteps sounded heavy to her own ears and the sounds of monitors beeping seemed unnaturally loud as she made her way down the hallway.

" _It's nothing personal, I assure you, sir. You have been a wise mentor and a good friend, but… business must come first."_

Bird came to a stop right outside of the room as she heard Oswald's voice. Pulling in a deep breath she leaned against the wall just outside of the room and listened to what was happening inside.

"I'm going to take your place, old man!" Oswald exclaimed, "And I'm going to be the King of Gotham." He laughed with excitement as he spoke, the end of it all was so close he could taste it. Everything he'd worked for was about to finally pay off.

"You?" Falcone scoffed, "Never! You're going to burn in hell."

Walking up to the side of the gurney the crime boss was left strapped down too, Oswald leaned in closely as he confided, "I do worry about that." Letting out the breath he'd been holding he pointed at him with the scalpel as he continued, "But you first, old friend…"  
The tone of his voice changed as he repeated, "You first!"

"Stop!" Bird yelled as she darted into the room. She'd heard that tone in her best friend's voice before and it was normally followed by a large amount of blood being shed.

"What are you doing here?" Oswald asked, looking at her with wide eyes as he reminded her, "You said he was mine."

"I know." She nodded, eyeing Butch who was standing in the corner of the room holding onto an assault rifle. Turning back to Oswald she admitted, "I tried to just stay out of it, let fate take its course… but I can't."

As she walked over and stood on the opposite side of the gurney from where Oswald was standing, she looked down to Don Falcone and sighed, "I can't let you kill him."

"You don't have a choice!" He hissed from between his teeth, "You can't stop me."

"What are you going to do?" Bird asked with a shrug, "Command Butch to shoot me?"

Looking down to the gun in his hands, and then to the man who's orders he'd been programmed to thoughtlessly carry out, Butch pleaded, "Please, don't."

With a scowl on his face, Oswald stared his best friend down.  
All along he'd been messing their plans up, one misstep after another and now that they were almost on top it was apparently her turn to screw up their plans.

"I will be the King of Gotham." Oswald said, shaking with anger as he spoke.

"You couldn't be king of anything." Falcone argued, despite being strapped down and left defenseless, "You're a nobody."

"Shut up." Bird snapped, looking down to where he was laying, she continued, "You deserve this, we both know… after everything you'd done the sad truth is you deserve to go out like this." Letting out a sigh, she added, "I guess you're just lucky that I can't chalk murders up to business when it comes to friends and family."

Oswald's eyes widened as he stared at her and asked, "You had the test ran… and you were correct in your assumptions?" Stuttering through his sentence he managed to ask, "He's really your father?"

"Oh…" Bird breathed, "The story gets better than that –turns out I'm actually a Wayne by blood too."

Butch looked between the friends with an ever growing look on confusion on his face as he tried to process what they were saying, but it was like the words just weren't sinking in yet.

"While I'm sure that's a perfectly interesting story, I'm afraid I don't have time for it right now, Bird." Oswald said, clutching the scalpel in his hand as he stomped a foot against the floor and said, "Just leave me to take care of this."

"Wait… you're The Romans daughter?" Butch finally asked, with a dumbstruck expression. Looking down the floor he breathed, "When did all of this happen?"

"Not now, Butch!" Oswald sighed heavily, burdened by Butch's slow response time when it came to matters of the brain and thinking things through. He often felt the same way about Gabe, psychically they could intimidate and provide protection he needed –but intellectually, he felt like they weren't even in the same ballpark as he was.

"I'm sorry." Bird apologized to her best friend, "I will still help you reach the top of the crime ladder in Gotham, but we have to do it without killing Falcone."

"Killing him is the only way!" He argued, and Bird yelled back, "Look at him, he already knows he's been beaten! You've won, Oswald… we're just going to have to revise the details is all."

"Nobody move!" Jim ordered as he entered the room just in time to catch the end of the argument between the friends.

Letting out a groan, Oswald pinned his eyes shut and couldn't believe the terrible luck he was having that day.

Holding out a hand he ordered, "Walk away, Jim Gordon."

"Shut up." Jim countered, looking between Butch and Oswald as he explained, "You're both under arrest for attempted murder. Drop your weapons."

In a fit, Oswald let out another frustrated noise as he threw the scalpel into a metal sink across the room and Butch laid down the gun he'd been holding.

As he started to handcuff them to a handrail on the wall, Bird complained, "What are you doing, Jim? We all need to get out of here before Maroni's men show up."

"Didn't you hear?" Oswald yelled at him, "Falcone is out, by official decree. Everyone agrees."

"I heard!" Jim yelled back at him, before nodding to Bird and saying, "Help me untie him."

With a sigh she got to work on helping him undo the restraints holding Falcone down.  
"No, Bird, don't!" Oswald cried out, stubbornly trying to pull his hand from the handcuff, but stopping when the metal started to cut into his skin, "Release me, Jim… get on the winning side!"

Helplessly he looked between them as they continued to remove Falcone's restraints; he felt like the entire world was collapsing in on him and he couldn't understand how the day had gone so wrong when just minutes before he was about to kill the biggest crime boss in all of Gotham.

"Winning side? My ass! Maroni's a fool, he can't replace me. A thousand rivals will jump up to challenge him." Falcone angrily yelled, before lowering his volume and turning to Jim as he said, "There will be civil war. If I die now, Gotham falls apart."

"I agree." Jim nodded, "But can you turn things around? Can you take back control?"

"Of course. I just need a few days… two days at my safe house to make some moves and I'll skin Maroni and those disloyal scum like rabbits-"

"Wake up Napoleon!" Oswald yelled, "Maroni's louts are minutes away from coming here and cutting your throat, and the thing is, Jim, they aren't very fond of me either… so seriously, you need to uncuff me…" His voice trailed off and he frantically yelled, "Jim!" When the detective went out into the hallway, with the assault rifle Butch had been armed with in his arms.

After making a call to Bullock in hopes that his partner would come to his aid at the hospital. Jim returned to the room, and asked Falcone if he was able to walk.

"If I have to." He nodded, his whole body was aching from the explosion he'd been near earlier that day, he was worn out –physically exhausted, but he wasn't giving up the fight.

"Let's get you out of here. I'll take you to your safe house." Jim nodded.

"Jim, my friend!" Oswald yelled, with a nervous smile. "You are making a terrible mistake."

"I'm doing this for the city." He explained, turning to Falcone as he added, "Not you, but you're the least worst option, if I didn't think you could take back control… I'd let you die. Just so we're clear."

"We're clear." Falcone agreed.

"Y-you can't leave me here… Maroni's men will kill me." Oswald said.

"Possibly." Jim nodded.

"No… no, you arrested us." He reminded him, nodding to where Butch was handcuffed beside him, "We are in your custody."

"That's true…" Jim breathed.

"Look around, Jim." Bird said, "You're in a room full of criminals… but right now we're all on the same side."

"Are we?" Oswald yelled at her, "And pray tell, Bird, what side is that, because frankly I don't know where your alliances are anymore!"

Rolling her eyes she shot him a look as she said, "Right now, we're all just wanting to make it out of this hospital in one piece… am I right?"

Looking around she watched as everyone slowly nodded in agreement with her.

" _James Gordon!"_

Everyone looked towards the open door when they heard someone calling out Jim's name.

" _Detective Gordon!"_

"It's Loeb." Jim realized, looking around the room at everyone.

"You want me to kill him?" Bird questioned and when Jim looked at her she shrugged and whisper yelled, "The man has been nothing but a pain the ass!"

"Just stay here!" He hissed back, before stepping towards the door and looking out into the hallway, as he glanced back into the room he saw Falcone pulling a knife from his sock and Jim pleaded, "Don't kill them."

"He won't." Bird spoke up, nodding to let Jim know that she could control the room while he dealt with the police commissioner.

"Morning fellas!" Jim greeted, "What can I help you with?"

"It's not morning." Butch quietly said upon hearing Jim's voice from the hallway.

"Does it matter?" Oswald snapped, shaking his head and glaring at Bird.

"Oh, stop giving me those looks." She whisper yelled at him with her eyes narrowed.

"You came back to save my life." Falcone said, looking at her as he said, "Thank you."

Bird looked over at him, but didn't say anything. Instead she tried to focus on the conversation taking place outside of the room.

"He's all yours!" Loeb called out as he turned to leave, throwing Jim to the wolves and in truth hoping they killed the detective.

Bird darted out into the hallway, bumping into Jim as she did to see what was happening.

"Get back inside." He yelled, pushing her into the room and quickly spinning back around to prepare for the attack from Maroni's men.

"I saw at least ten guys down the hall." Bird recounted for the group still in the room. She'd barely gotten her words out before the empty wing of the hospital was lit up with rapid gunfire and the sounds echoing off the walls were nearly deafening.

"We're dead." Butch thought out loud, giving a lazy tug on his cuffed wrist as he spoke; upon hearing footsteps closing in on the doorway of the room.

Silently crossing the room, Bird grabbed the scalpel that Oswald had tossed into the sink, and moved back to lean against the wall just inside of the door.

Oswald and Butch both stared at her, wondering what sort of plan she was working on and both knowing Bird was their first line of defense.  
Falcone remained where he was sitting on the end of the bed –still trying to regain his strength and prepare to run if he needed too.

"Well, well, well." A voice said just from outside of the door, "Maroni's gonna-"

The man never got to finish his sentence, just as he got through the doorway into the room, Bird lunged for him driving the scalpel into the side of his neck, straight into his carotid artery and kicking backwards as she pulled the blade out and blood started to pour and spurt from the wound, leaving a thick red line of blood across the wall as he stumbled backwards before falling onto the floor.

The crimson stained scalpel fell from her hand as Bird quickly retrieved the gun the man had been holding onto from beside his motionless body, and immediately removed the clip to see how many rounds were left before snapping it back into place.

Pulling in a deep breath, she looked around the room and then back down to the gun in her hand before she tucked it into the waistband of her dark jeans.

"Jim can hold his own out there." Bird said, trying her best to sound confident as she spoke. Looking to Butch and Oswald she displayed the key to the handcuffs she'd lifted off the detective when she bumped into him and said, "We have to get out of here."

"Oh, Bird..." Oswald breathed, dropping his head with a sigh of relief, "You are still my truest friend."

"Just add it to the ever growing list of how many times I've saved your ass." She said as she started towards the handcuffed pair, until she slowed to a stop.

"What are you waiting for?" Oswald frantically questioned; unable to wrap his mind around why she wasn't already unlocking the cuffs.

Another round of gun fire echoed off the walls and she looked over her shoulder towards the open doorway of the room.

"Bird?" Butch questioned, "The cuffs, remember?"

She turned back and around and looked between them, her gaze focusing on Oswald as she admitted, "I can't leave him out there on his own."

"You can!" Oswald insisted, "You said yourself, Jim Gordon can hold his own-"

"I'm not leaving him." Her tone was strong and for the first time in what felt like months, she knew without a doubt that the decision she was making was the right one.

"Bird!" Oswald hissed, his anger giving way to fear.

"You're safer in here with us." Falcone pointed out, "You'll be walking out into a firing squad."

His words earned little more than a glance over in his direction, before she walked up to Oswald. "This is your fault, you know." She joked with a sad smile, "You're the one who wanted to keep Jim Gordon around in the first place."

His mouth hung open and his eyes searched over the expression on her face, and though he knew there was no way in talking her out of it, he pleaded, "Don't go out there, Bird. Please."

"Take these." She pushed the keys into his free hand and leaned in, pressing a kiss to his forehead before pulling back and adding, "And don't get killed."

Turning, she briskly walked towards the door, only pausing long enough to call over her shoulder, "And if any of you care about me at all, you won't kill one another."

Before she'd ever left the room, Oswald was already scrambling to get the handcuff off his wrist, before handing the key to Butch so he could free himself.

Rubbing his wrist, Butch looked to Oswald and asked, "What now, boss?"

Oswald gave a weak shrug, the gunshots seeming to sound louder with his realization that they couldn't make a run for it. They'd all be dead as soon as they left the room.

"The shots are still too close." Falcone announced, taking charge of the situation, "It's too risky; anyone who steps one foot outside of this room is as good as dead."

"But Bird-" Butch started to argue.

"Is highly skilled and trained by the best of the best." Falcone cut him off, pulling in a breath before admitting on the exhale, "I made sure of that."

* * *

 **A/N - So the truth is out! Bird didn't only find out who her biological father is, she also learned she's a Wayne by blood as well. :P**

 **Not too many more chapters and I'll be done with season one! I'm planning on starting a new story for when I hit season two -I'll have more details at the end of the last few chapters for all of you!**

 **I really hope you're all having a great holiday season and I want you all to know how incredibly thankful I am for the support I've received on this and my other stories.**

 **Big thanks to SwingingOnAStar, Shadow knight1121 and to Guestz for reviewing since the last update.**


	51. Another Sunrise

**LI**

" _There is no such thing as a "broken family." Family is family, and is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart. The only time family becomes null is when those ties in the heart are cut. If you cut those ties, those people are not your family. If you make those ties, those people are your family. And if you hate those ties, those people will still be your family because whatever you hate will always be with you."_ _― C. JoyBell C._

* * *

Barely missing countless flying bullets, Jim ducked behind the desk of the nurses station and lowered his head to shield his eyes from the shards of glass flying widely around him in the deserted wing of Gotham General.

He'd spent the bullets in the assault rifle already and had run out of ammo for both his service weapon and the other gun he'd been carrying.

The three guns he'd entered into the fight with were nothing compared to the machine guns Maroni's crew had been toting. Though, with what little defenses he had, he'd managed to drop several men.

Only now it seemed as though his luck had run out and every passing second was time borrowed from a clock whose time was running out.

Jim looked up to see one of Maroni's men standing above him and the barrel of a gun aimed between his own eyes.

If there was still gunfire riddling the hospital walls and furniture with bullet holes, then he was no longer aware of the sound. Around him the earth had fell into a deafening silence, the kind that left his ears with the feeling of being plugged with cotton.

The next and only sound he heard was a single gunshot, so loud he'd have sworn the sound alone was enough to make his ears bleed, followed by a few moments of complete and utter confusion –until he saw the man's body fall to the floor with a trail of blood seeping from the single hole in his forehead.

Jim managed to pull in a breath which seemed to restore the chaotic sounds around him.

It had be Bullock, he thought. His partner had somehow gotten there with backup in just the nick of time.  
Or so he was convinced until Bird jumped over the desk and dropped down next to him, leaning her head back against the wood she caught her breath and turned to face him as she stated, "You're welcome, you know… for saving your life –again."

"How many more are there?" Jim finally asked when he managed to find his voice.

"I saw at least three men headed this way." Bird explained, "I was going to go after them, but then you had a gun to your head, so…"

"Let me see that." He nodded to the gun in her hands and when she held it out to him, he saw there were two rounds left in the clip and one in the chamber.

"Three bullets." He sighed, before his eyes landed on the gun he'd nearly been killed with, which was laying a little too far out of reach to easily snatch up without being seen and shot in the process.

"Guess we're in luck then, huh?" Bird swallowed.  
Seeing the look Jim shot her she reminded him, "Three men."

"And only three bullets." Jim pointed out, "That doesn't leave any room for error and they're all heavily armed."

"One bullet –one kill." Bird replied, ducking down further as the armed men started to rip apart more of the furniture around them with gun shots. Maroni's men knew they had them cornered and trapped, but instead of going right in for the kill –they were taunting them.

"You make it sound so easy." Jim mumbled, as he adjusted the gun in his hand and prepared to face the men down.

"Give me the gun." Bird said, holding out her hand.

"Right-" Jim started to scoff, but Bird didn't give him much chance for an argument when she pointed out, "I know I'm probably not your first choice for an ally, but I'm all you've got."

Seeing his reluctance to hand over their only weapon, she asked, "When Victor Zsasz came for you at the police station, you got into a gun fight and who won?" Pausing for a breath she reminded him, "Victor did and I have been training and working with him for months."

"We need to get that other gun." Jim said; nodding to where it lay out in the open on the floor outside of the desk area.

"I'll cover you." Bird offered, her extended hand still waiting for the gun, she promised, "I've got your back. You're just going to have to trust me."

Their eyes met and after a brief pause of hesitation, he handed their only means of survival over to someone who, a year ago, he wouldn't have even trusted to water plants –let alone have his back in a gun fight.

Funny how fast things can change in a city like Gotham.  
Here he was, fighting for his life after the police commissioner had thrown him to Maroni's goons and the person who'd just saved his life was a self-admitted criminal.

"On my count." Jim began, watching as Bird adjusted the gun in her hands and they both moved into better positions to make a move from, "One…two…three!"

On his count, they both sprang into action, Jim dove for the assault weapon that had been dropped to the floor as Bird fluidly moved along with him. Shielding and protecting him as she fired all the rounds left in the stolen handgun, until they both took cover behind the other side of the nurses station.

"I think one of them is still alive." Bird admitted, tossing the now empty gun onto the floor beside her and looking over at Jim when he nodded, "We have to get Falcone and the others and get out of this hospital. They'll just keep sending in more men."

Bird nodded in complete agreement, though internally she wondered if Oswald had already taken the opportunity to flee.

As they both left the small bit of safety the desk provided, they started to make their way back down the correct hallway, with Jim shooting and killing the man Bird had left standing.

Seeing movement from the corner of his eye, Jim spun and pointed the gun when someone stepped out from behind a large support column.

"Jim! Jim! Don't shoot, it's me!" Bullock called out, holding his hands up in surrender.

Jim blew out a breath and lowered the gun, while Bird stayed alert of their surroundings.

"Don Maroni _and_ a crew of men are headed here now." Bullock warned, lowering his arms and surveying the bloody mess of bodies littering the floor around them.

"Backup?" Jim asked as he walked closer to him.

"It's just me partner." Bullock explained, "Look, there are ambulances in the basement. Where's Falcone?"

"Yeah…" Jim sighed, "Uh, about that. We gotta take Penguin and Gilzean too."

"Penguin and Gilzean?" Bullock complained, thinking it was going to be hard enough trying to get just them out of the hospital alive. Why waste more time trying to bring criminals to safety?

"No one gets left behind." Bird argued.

"I arrested them for attempted murder, they're both in my custody." Jim admitted.

"You!" Harvey yelled in shock at his partner, followed by a string of inaudible frustrated noises, "I don't have time to argue with you! Let's just go."

 **~()~**

Several more minutes passed until all sounds of gunfire ceased and the group in the hospital room exchanged looks, each of them wondering if it was worth the risk of going out into the hallway; while Oswald also contemplated making another attempt on Falcone's life.

"We've gotta move!" Jim yelled as he walked into the room with Bird right on his heels.

"Bird!" Oswald breathed with a sigh of relief at seeing his best friend was alive and uninjured.

There was a glint of pride in his eye, as Falcone looked to Bird and questioned, "Are they all dead?"

"This batch of them, yeah." She nodded, and Jim added "We need to get to the basement, our best chance at getting out is an ambulance."

His eyes landed on Butch and Oswald and remembering he hadn't freed them he asked, "How did you…"

When they both looked at Bird, he blew out a sigh realizing when she'd bumped into him earlier it was to lift the key from him.

"Come on!" Bullock yelled, popping his head into the room and reminding them, "Elevators are to the left."

After a mad dash to the basement, they'd stolen a set of keys to an ambulance and everyone piled in.

"Get down!" Jim yelled to everyone else in the ambulance with him, as he drove up the hill from basement parking and spotted Salvatore Maroni with several armed men as they closed in on the hospital.

He stepped on the gas and tried to get them out of there as fast as possible, while Maroni's men opened fire on the emergency vehicle.

Once they were out of sight and far out of range of the flying bullets, Jim pulled off into an alleyway just out of sight from the main road and questioned, "Where to?"

"We need a place to regroup." Bullock pointed out, "The hits aren't gonna stop coming now."

"He's right." Falcone agreed with a single nod. All eyes fell on the Mafia Don and it didn't take him long to formulate a plan. "I know just the place."

With Bullock being more knowledgeable about the streets of Gotham than Jim was, he took over the driver's seat and Falcone moved up to sit by him and steer him in the right direction.

Jim handcuffed Oswald and Butch together again, despite their protests, before he sat down next to Bird in the back of the ambulance.

"Are you really going to arrest them?" Bird asked, looking over to the exhausted detective.

"I have to." He pointed out, "I witnessed them trying to kill someone."

"But you have to know it's a losing fight, Jim." A smirk spread over her lips as she taunted, "I mean really, it's just going to come back looking bad on you. I know some pretty powerful defense attorneys and which judges can be bought. I'll make sure both of them get off on some technicality or with barely a slap on the wrist –and that is of course if this case ever even sees a courtroom in the first place-"

It was clear to see that she was yet again trying to find a way to get under his skin; choosing to ignore her antics, Jim looked around the ambulance before asking in a quiet voice, "Why'd you do it? You'd already gotten the key to free your friends, you could have just taken them and slipped out of a back exit."

"Maybe Oswald and Butch weren't my only friends in danger." She nonchalantly answered, but Jim wasn't going to let it go so easily.

"I remember a time when you wanted to kill me because you though I'd killed Oswald." Jim reminded her, pausing for a mere few seconds before adding, "I also seem to recall a time when you told me, to my face, that my life didn't hold much value to you. Then today, instead of staying with him or getting him to safety, you came to my aid."

"Oswald still comes first. Don't get it twisted." Bird quietly huffed at him, "He means more to me than you can even imagine and I will always look out for him first."

"But still." He pointed out, "You came back to help me when you could have easily fled."

"Can't you just let it go? Just be thankful that we're all still alive and breathing?"

"No."

Bird's eyes narrowed as she accused, "Dog with a bone… just can't let anything go."  
A look of seriousness fell over her features and she argued, "It doesn't matter anyways."

"Maybe it does matter-" Jim started to point out, but didn't get to further his case when Bird insisted, "It doesn't-"

"Maybe that's not all for you to decide-" He started to cut in.

"What do you want me to say?" She whisper-yelled at him.

"The truth."  
His answer sounded so simple, when the question felt anything but.

"The truth is –is that it really doesn't matter." She argued, her forehead started to line when she shook her head back and forth and blurted out, "Maybe it's the same reason why you trusted me to cover you back there when we were under fire. Or the reason why I've repeatedly put my neck out on the line for you, or the same reason you kissed me that day at the hospital."

Swallowing hard her eyes met his and she whispered, "The reasons aren't important, Jim. Because when the sun sets; you're still a cop and I'm still a criminal. When this is all over, you're going to go home to Lee and I promised Harvey that I was coming back to him."

Pulling her gaze away from him, she crossed her arms over her chest and slid down on the uncomfortable built in seating in the back of the ambulance while he continued to stare at her with his mouth hanging slightly open.

He needed to say something, anything, he thought. Needed to acknowledge the answer that he'd practically forced out of her, but the truth was he didn't even know where to begin.  
He never really knew when it came to Bird.

 **~()~**

Bird looked up to where her wrists were bound with a rope that was attached to a hook, she had Jim on one side of her and Oswald on the other.

It had felt like they were home free by the time they reached the old automotive warehouse Falcone had directed them too. It was a wonder that both they and the ambulance was still in on piece after driving through the rapid gunfire around the hospital that was crawling with Maroni's men.

Once they'd finally reached the warehouse; what was supposed to be their safe haven had unfortunately turned into a trap they'd all willingly walked into.  
A trap set by none other than Fish Mooney herself.

Oswald looked over to where Fish was talking to Butch and then to Bird as he let out a sigh and stropped struggling against the ropes that bound his wrists together and remained latched on the heavy hook.

"Bird." He said, getting his best friend's attention.

"Oswald?" She replied, looking over at him.

"I'd just like to say that…" Clearing his throat he shifted his stance trying to alleviate some of the pressure off his bad leg and continued, "In light of recent events, I want you to know that I forgive your betrayals."

"My betrayals?" She scoffed, looking at him. "I didn't betray you."

"You stopped me from killing Don Falcone." He reminded her.

"Yes, for personal reasons." She nodded, "But it's not like I said we needed to let him go free. We could have locked him up somewhere for the time being." She whispered to him.

"The way you stormed into that room, it felt like you had turned against me." He admitted, his voice quiet, "Like my only friend in the world had turned their back on me."

Bird reminded him, "I may not have been on board with killing Don Falcone, but that doesn't change anything between me and you. I was still going to help you take over Gotham."

Managing a smile in spite of their dire situation, he stammered, "Well, if w-we must die today, than I'm glad to not be alone. It has been an honor knowing you –our years of friendship have been a treasure to me and-"

With a small smile she said, "Yes, Oswald you're my best friend and I love you too."

"Ah, come on!" Bullock complained from where he was tied up on the other side of Oswald, "If I'm gonna die today, the last thing I wanna do is be stuck next to you saps."

Rolling her eyes, Bird looked past her best friend to the annoyed detective and pointed out, "As if Fish is really going to kill you anyways."

As Selina came over to look the captives over, Jim asked, "Selina, what are you doing here?"

"Chillin', how about you?" She replied with a newfound cockiness in her tone.

"Kinda jammed up." Jim answered, nodding to where his wrists were bound.

"Yeah…" Selina nodded, "That's too bad."

When Jim kept making different facial expressions at her and nodding towards the ropes, she laughed, "Oh, that's mime for ' _help us out here'_?" she guessed

Jim gave a wide, toothy smile and nodded but Selina shot his hopes down, "And totally blow the coolest gig ever, just because we kinda/sorta know each other?"

"A little help here…" Jim groaned, looking over to Bird.

"Oh no, I'm not going to beg for my life." Bird said, looking back to him. "It's a wasted effort and I'll take what I've got coming to me."  
Directing her gaze at Selina, she continued, "And… if I do get killed here today, I'll just take comfort in knowing that it will slowly eat away at you for the rest of your life. Every single time you look into my brother's eyes, they'll remind you of mine and it will haunt you –knowing that you played a part in taking away one of the last remaining members of his family. It will chip away at you day-by-day and piece-by-piece until you can't take it anymore." Locking eyes with the young teenager, Bird's tongue sharply formed every syllable as she said, "I will haunt you."

The smile fell from Selina's lips and she took a few stumbling steps back with her face seeming to grow paler by the second, before she turned and just walked away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jim caught a hint of a smile on Bird's lips as her dimples showed.

"This is funny to you?" He whispered-yelled, "She might have been our only chance at getting out of here."

"She's just a kid, Jim." Bird pointed out, "Fish dressed her up in nice new clothes, gave her a place to belong and I know better than anyone how Fish can make you feel special. To someone like Selina…" Her voice trailed off and she shrugged, "We're going to have to find our way out of this."

"Do you see anyone around here willing to help us?" He hissed.

"I might have a plan." Bird whispered back, leaning as close as she could to him so none of Fish's lackeys would hear her.

"Care to elaborate on this plan?" Jim asked, unable to tell if it was just smoke in mirrors or if she really had figured a way out of the seemingly impossible mess they'd all gotten into.

But the only answer he got was Bird vaguely replying, "I made a promise to Harvey that I'd come back in on piece and I really hate breaking promises."

One thing about Bird that always burrowed deep inside of him, was how she seemed to never take anything seriously at all.  
Even in these situations of life and death, she'd rather joke and taunt Selina then to actually come up with a feasible plan.

Bird looked back up to the ropes binding her wrists and sized up the small army of followers that Fish had managed to get on her side.  
The truth was, she had no idea how this was going to pan out. She hoped there would be a point where everyone would be distracted and she could slip out of the ropes and free the others, but she also knew there was a very big possibility that she might not make it out of this one.

Maybe that was fate, she considered, with so many close calls in her life –maybe her number was finally up.

With that thought she looked over to Oswald with a sadness in her eyes while he continued to wriggle around, trying desperately to get the rope off of the hook to free himself.  
Maybe they had both truly reached the end of the road –though as sad as it was, she had to admit that somewhere deep down; a part of her was okay with that.

She'd rather die by his side then go on seeing another sunrise in a world without him in it.

Her eyes pinned shut as thoughts of Harvey crossed her mind; of how her life had seemed to be finally falling into place. She'd had a man who loved her and wanted to marry her, they had a beautiful house and she'd left all of that behind to run back into danger salvaging parts of the life she'd sworn to him that she was leaving behind.

It hurt to admit it, but maybe there was some validity to what he was saying before she'd left.  
Ever more painful to admit was that in her leaving, she knew very well that despite the promise she made, there was a chance that she really might not make it back to him.

Either because she'd be dead, or because she couldn't truly leave the person she was in the past.  
It was something she didn't want to face, let alone even admit to herself, but walking out the doors of their house and leaving with only a promise to return when it was all over –she had to face down the truth that there was a part of her, even if it was only a tiny spec, that was okay with not walking back into the life she'd been trying to build with him.

Fish watched as Bird appeared deep in thought over something, probably trying to figure herself a way out of this. Her eyes drifted over to where Oswald was beside Bird, frantically trying to weasel his way out of the situation. Typical; she thought to herself as she walked over to them.

She hadn't been back in Gotham very long, but her return had been fruitful to say the least. She'd gotten an army behind her, gotten her hands on a nice cache of weapons and was plotting an attack against Falcone –when low and behold, he'd walked right onto her door step.

Things couldn't be turning out more perfect for her and in her mind she didn't just deserve a piece of the pie; she'd earned the whole damn thing.

After escaping Gotham, the ship she'd been on had been overrun and seized by pirates, she'd fought with everything in her, but in the end had been knocked unconscious and woke up sometime later imprisoned with other people in a dark and dank basement surrounded by filth.

Though she didn't know it at that time, she was out in the middle of nowhere, on an island of horrors owned and operated by Dr. Dulmacher –known as the Dollmaker. She'd killed the head prisoner in charge and gotten all of the other prisoners to follow her.

As it turned out, they were all only being used for spare parts. Some of their organs were being sold to the highest bidder, while others were simply taken apart for the Dollmaker's own experiments.

Her plan of organizing the others was going swimmingly until one of the on-site mangers had been given orders to remove her eyes for business purposes. Something she wasn't about to let happen after she made a promise to herself so long ago that no man would ever be above her.  
No, she'd do anything it took to stand up to them and get her way.

Knowing they'd want a set of matching eyes, she did the only thing she knew how would prevent them from getting what they wanted –she'd cut out her own left eyeball and even stepped on it once it landed on the floor; ensuring that it would be of no use to them.

It had seemed like the end of life as she knew it in those moments; feeling a sense of powerlessness that she'd sworn she'd never know again.

But now here she stood, back home in Gotham, with a new bright blue eye that Dr. Dulmacher had given her. She'd fought her way off that island, nearly being killed in the process, but she hadn't surrendered. Never given in or given up and she'd made it home, just like she said she would.

Even after all the betrayal, she could still recognize traces of herself in Bird. Out of everyone tied up in front of her, she knew that if any of them would make it out this ordeal –it would be Bird. She was a fighter; through and through. Fish had seen it many times, and just like herself, she knew Bird wouldn't ever give up.

With those thoughts on her mind, she stepped closer to where everyone was tied up and considered how the smart decision would have been to go ahead and kill Bird, or at least add some extra ropes and chains to keep her down.  
Looking down to the ground, Fish considered that maybe a part of her was hoping that her once favorite employee would somehow escape with her life.

Clearing her throat and putting her game face back on, Fish greeted, "Hello fellas!"

Her eyes scanned back and forth across her prisoners before she stopped on Bird and said with a sadness in her voice, "Hello again, baby girl."

"Wish I could say it's good to see you again, Fish… but I'm done with all the lies." Bird replied, swallowing hard as she spoke and wishing that her former boss hadn't returned to Gotham for a variety of reasons.

Fish gave her a less than friendly smile, before walking over to where Falcone was the first in line of everyone with their wrists bound, "Carmine…" Walking past Jim and Bird, she stopped in front of Oswald who was back to frantically trying to get his wrists unbound, "Penguin, nothing to share?"

When no one would speak to her she nodded and started to pace in front of them as she proudly said, "Well, I have a little something to share. I just made a sweet deal with Maroni. He just told me I could have all my territories back and all I have to do in return is give him Carmine's head."

Completely overwhelmed from the internal conflict of having Fish back and being programmed to blindly follow Oswald's orders, Butch's head was pounding. Walking up to his former boss he said, "Uh, Fish… I need to go lie down."

Oswald let out an irritated sigh as he watched him go.

"What did you do to that poor soul, you sick sadist?" Fish asked, as she focused her attention on Oswald.

"I assure you-" He stammered, but didn't get a chance to finish as Fish pointed one of her artificial nails at him that had a very sharp tip and a spiked ball decoration on it. His eyes widened as he backed away from the threatening metal nail.

"You will die a slow and painful death for what you did to Butch!" She snapped, spinning on her heels and pointing to Falcone as she added, "You too, Carmine."

Walking over to Jim she looked him over as she said, "You…" Giving some thought to what should happen to him she said, "We'll keep it simple."

Eyeing Bird, she walked past her down to where Bullock was tied up and said, "We're cool." Snapping her fingers, she watched as one of her people came over to cut the detective down and lead him away from the others so he wouldn't be tempted to help them.

Slowly walking back to Bird, Fish asked, "Didn't I warn you this would happen? Didn't I tell you that I would be back and if you were still aligned with Penguin, you'd wind up dead?"

"You did." Bird nodded.

"But you didn't listen." Fish sighed, "Your loyalty is almost unmatched… but, what a shame it is that –that loyalty lies with someone so…" Eyeing Oswald from the corner of her eye she added, "Undeserving."

A look of pain was present on both of their faces as the two women stared one another down. It would hurt, Fish thought to herself, killing or having Bird killed would hurt like hell.

Reaching up she patted the side of Bird's face, before calling out her fate, "We'll keep it simple… and fast." Letting out a sigh she pulled her hand back and admitted, "You're breaking my heart."

"Fish." Falcone finally spoke up in the hopes of saving someone else, even though he knew his own fate was sealed, "Let her go. This is a rivalry between us, it doesn't really concern her."

"I'm not about to beg for my own life." Bird said, leaning her head forward and look past Jim to where she could see Falcone as she added, "So I certainly don't need you to do it for me."

Ignoring what she said to him, Falcone resumed trying to reason with Fish, "We both know how much you care about her. How much you love her… just let her go."

Abruptly turning her head, Fish stared at him as she conceded, "I do love her; watching her die will be like chopping off one of my own limbs."  
Pausing for a moment, she then argued, "But one can live without a limb, especially when that limb has an infection and does nothing weaken the body."

"Fish-" Falcone sighed, but didn't get to say much else as she walked up to him and asked, "What is it about her, huh? See, that's what I've been having trouble trying to figure out. You were ready to see us all burn after Liza… everyone one of us except for Bird."

Stepping closer and getting in his face, each word was sharply syllabled as she slowly asked, "Why does she mean so much to you?"

Oswald's hair fell into his eyes as he looked around, desperately trying to figure a way out of his current predicament.  
When Falcone didn't give Fish the answer she wanted –or any answer at all, Oswald looked over to where Bird was next to him, before he called out, "He's her father!"

When Bird whipped her head around and shot him a look, all he could do was offer a helpless shrug. If by some chance Fish would let Bird free, then he was sure she'd come to his rescue and also free him.

"Isn't that something?" Fish exclaimed, taking several steps backwards and looking between Falcone and Bird, clearly shocked from the newly learned intel. "I'll be damned…" She breathed.

 **~()~**

It wasn't much later that a few cars pulled up and Don Maroni got out of one, leading his own group of followers to the gathering.

"So there he is!" Fish called out, smiling to the crime boss.

Moving closer to the action as he eyed the group of four captives, he turned his attention back to her he said, "Fish, you mysterious, crazy, gorgeous killer you. I love you." With that he leaned in and gave her an embrace, but she remained still; standing like a stone in his arms.

Walking up to where Falcone was bound, Maroni's smile grew, "This… this is delicious. Finally, you're hard to kill old man."

"No." Don Falcone argued, "Your people are second rate."

Jim looked between where Bird was on one side of him and Falcone on the other.  
It wasn't so hard to believe they were related and he could see the resemblance; neither of them appeared to be very rattled or shaken from what was happening, a complete contrast to Oswald who was breathing erratically while trying to escape his rope bindings.

"Miss Mooney, if I may… a brief word." Oswald stammered, "I –I I know my life is forfeit, I speak not for my own sake… but for yours, because after all, I still love and respect you."

"Go on." She humored him.

"Kill me if you must, but keep Falcone alive. As soon as he's dead; Maroni has no use for you. You are simply a threat." Oswald cried, nodding frantically along with his own words, "He will kill you!"

"Woah!" Maroni yelled, trying to silence him.

"You think?" Fish asked.

"Why would he need another boss in town? Another rival?" Oswald tried to reason.

"That's where you're wrong, smart guy. She's not a rival because she's not a boss, she's an underboss." Maroni argued, but used the wrong choice of words and Fish stated, "An underboss takes orders… I don't take orders."

"I know that." Maroni said, "We're cool. Relax."

"I'm relaxed." Fish said, doing her best to keep her anger in check.

"You don't look relaxed, babes." He argued with her.

Bird looked around, seeing that everyone was watching the disagreement between Fish and Maroni, she knew now was her chance to make her move.

Taking in a deep breath, she kept her core tight as she used all over her upper body strength to grasp onto the chain of the hook her ropes were secured on and raised the lower half of her body all the way up until she was able to hook her knees on the horizontal wood post at the top.

Oswald and Jim both stared up to her as she managed to quickly slide the ropes binding her wrists off the hook, before lowering herself back down and looking around to make sure no one had spotted her.

Luckily; everyone else was still watching the argument taking place, as Maroni tried to tell Fish that 'babes' was a term of endearment, that it meant he liked her.

When Fish said that they were partners, Maroni proceeded to try and humiliate her by making her repeat after him that he was partner number one and she was partner number two.

Bird could tell her former boss was about to let her lose the leash she'd been keeping on her anger, she'd only play along with his antics for so long before the top would blow and she'd lash out.

Knowing that the second she helped Oswald out of his ropes, he'd make a run for it and draw attention, Bird knelt down and pulled the knife out of her boot that she'd tucked away in a special sewn in interior pocket and got to work cutting Jim free.

Careful to avoid attention, Jim moved slowly and carefully keeping his eyes peeled for anyone who might be watching them.

Once he was free, Bird handed the knife to him and he cut the ropes on her wrists. Once she was completely freed, she took her knife back from him and Jim dropped down to the floor to retrieve the knife from Falcone's sock, that he'd told him about having earlier.

"What are you waiting for?" Oswald whispered, staring at Bird with wide eyes and not understanding why she hadn't freed him yet.

"Shh!" She hissed, before looking over to see Jim was already at work on cutting Falcone's ropes.

Just as she started to free her friend, there was a loud gunshot and they all looked to see Maroni's lifeless body fall to the floor from a single shot to the head –a shot delivered from Fish's gun.

After the few seconds of initial shock faded, everyone sprang into action. Bullock raced for Jim to help him get Falcone freed and lead them away from danger, while Maroni's men instantly retaliated against Fish and her crew as they charged at them.

Lifting the clip, Bird slid Oswald's ropes off the hook and grabbed onto his arm as she dragged him away from immediate danger and beside a partly disassembled car.

Scrambling to cut the ropes from his wrist she said, "I bet Maroni's men left the keys in their cars. If we can make it to one of them we can get out of here."

"No." Oswald said, his entire body shaking from adrenaline as he said with conviction, "Maroni is dead and I'm not leaving here until Fish has joined him. This is my time… I'm going to be the king."

With that Oswald darted off as fast as he could to pick up one of the fallen weapons and go after his former boss.

With a groan, Bird jumped up fought her way through the crowd trying to find her friend but it had turned into complete chaos. It seemed like people were fighting just to fight, blindly throwing punches, firing guns and swishing knives through the air.

Somehow she made it through and stumbled out of a side exit, where she found Jim, Bullock and Falcone crouched down in front of a large truck trying to stay out of sight.

Dropping onto the ground with them, she asked, "Did Oswald go past here?"

Jim shook his head back and forth; the last thing he had time to do was worry about Oswald.

"If we can get to seventh avenue without being spotted by Fish's people, we're home free." Jim thought out loud, trying to hatch a plan.

"Then what?" Bullock asked, trying to catch his breath.

"We find a safe place… regroup." Looking towards Falcone Jim added, "Maroni's death is a lucky break for you.

"Spoken like a true Mafioso." Falcone breathed, leaning back against the truck and struggling for his breath.

Bird glanced at him, remembering the day in the car when he'd told her the same thing.

"The least worst option." Jim nodded, "Like you said, without you this city falls apart."

"Yes, I said that." Falcone nodded, "And it might be true, but this has been a long day and I've had a long time to look at this world I've created." Looking to Bird, he admitted, "I'm done with this business. I'm out."

"You're done?" Jim exclaimed.

"I know, I'm letting you down and I'm letting this city down." Falcone nodded.

Turning his attention to Bird he said, "But I have let you down most of all. My dear, you will never truly know how sorry I am for everything. I wish I had time to right all of my wrongs, but…" His voice trailed off and he blew out a breath as he repeated, "I'm sorry."

Hearing voices outside with them, Bird gave a small nod to Falcone before she turned to Jim and said, "Look, my guess is Maroni's men left the keys in the cars from when they pulled up. If you guys can make it to one of them, you can get out of here."

"I'm leaving Gotham." Falcone announced, "I have a place down south where I can go… it's on the beach." Feeling like he already knew the answer to the question before it was spoken, he offered, "You could come with me, if you'd like."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think it's little too late for you to start playing dear ol' dad." Bird declined.  
If she ever did leave Gotham, it was going to be on her own terms and no one elses, but for now her concern was making sure Oswald lived to see the sunrise.

"You have to get to one of those cars." Bird said as the voices outside drew closer.

"You're not coming with us?" Jim asked, as he grabbed her arm to keep her low when she started to stand up.

"No." Bird answered, "I'm not leaving without Oswald."

"With an attitude like that and a friend like Penguin –you're going to get yourself killed." Falcone warned her.

"Yeah… probably." Bird agreed, checking their surroundings before she looked to Falcone and said, "Goodbye, Don Falcone."

Without giving any of them a chance to respond she stood up and raced back towards the warehouse.

 **~()~**

Breathing heavily through the pain as she climbed the seemingly never ending metal stairs leading to the roof, Bird paused on the landing then doubled over in pain as she clutched onto her wounded side. Gripping onto the metal railing, she moved the hand she'd been holding over the knife wound and saw her hand was covered in blood.

Letting out a pained, but determined scream she continued on her way up the stairs. It wasn't long after she'd gone back in the building that she'd gotten into fight with a few of Maroni's men, she'd been able to drop one pretty quickly, but before she could bring down the other one he'd swiped a knife that cut through her clothes into her arm and then managed to plunge the blade into her side.

The noise and crowd had seemed to die down, nearly everyone that hadn't fled when the fight first started, was either dead, badly injured or just too tired to keep momentum.

The cold air that hit her face when she pushed open the door to the roof stole her breath, but gave her a temporary distraction from the sharp, unrelenting waves of pain rolling through her body.

Making her way across the roof, she followed sounds of fighting and yelling until she saw Fish and Oswald, each with their hands wrapped around the other one's throats and Butch looking like he was on the edge of a breakdown as he pointed a gun at them.

"Butch!" Fish called out, "About time."

"Shoot her, Butch!" Oswald yelled.

"Oh, really?" Fish scoffed.

"Do as I say, Butch. Shoot her!"

"What are you doing? Drop him!"

"My friend, remembering your training I order you to shoot her!"

" _Butch, don't listen to him. He's done something to your mind. I'm your girl, remember I'm your girl!"_

" **Kill her now!"**

Their voices and demands were getting mixed inside of Butch's head, too chaotic to think straight and it was a struggle of his mind against his heart. It became increasingly harder to breath, and his ears began to ring long before he ever pulled the trigger. He was only vaguely aware of the kickback from the shots fired, before the gun fell to the ground and his head finally started to clear.

He saw Oswald laying on the ground and Fish holding onto her bleeding leg as she cried out in pain; it was then he realized that he'd shot the both of them.

"Oh my god! What have I done?" He called out, rushing to help Fish keep her footing as he apologized, "I'm so sorry, I would never hurt you… I love you Fish!"

"It's okay, it's not your fault. I love you too." Fish said, tears burning her eyes as she spoke to him, "They messed with your mind, it's not your fault."

Bird leaned back against an electrical unit and tried to catch her breath, but she was starting to feel light headed and even if she'd wanted to intervene with what was happening –she was out of strength and fight to do so.

With a battle cry on his lips, Oswald pulled himself back off the ground and hit Butch in the back with a plank of wood he'd came across and knocked him down.

"Goodbye, Fish!" He shouted, unable to stand still from both the pain he was in from the bullet wound and the new rush of adrenaline he was feeling.

"It's all good." Fish said, preparing her stance for another fight.  
But Oswald came at her faster and with much more strength than she expected, not being too far away from the ledge it didn't take much for him to throw her off the roof.

Bird ran past where Butch was still laying on the ground, tears in his eyes as he watched Fish fall over the side.

Bird made it to the side just in time to see Fish's body break the surface of the water and her screaming stopped. Closing her eyes she lowered her head, there was no way anyone could have survived a fall like that –not already being wounded and hitting the water as violently as she did.

Oswald looked over to where Bird was standing as he breathed, "I'm the King of Gotham…" Managing to pull himself up on the ledge he looked up to the dark, overcast night sky that shadowed the city he now owned.

Throwing his arms out to the sides; he took a breath of the freezing air and declared, "I'm the King of Gotham!" His body trembled as he used every last ounce of his strength to scream the words out again and again, each time tasted sweeter than the last, **"I'M THE KING OF GOTHAM!"**

It hurt her to know that Fish was truly gone, but she considered that maybe it was for the best. She was never going to stop coming after Oswald and her death, along with Falcone fleeing the city meant it was all truly over.

They'd defied all odds and managed to take over the city, a city she'd gladly let Oswald have control over, while she'd get to taste freedom and no longer be living under anyone's thumb.

Looking back up to where Oswald was still up on the ledge, relishing in his victory she turned and headed back towards the stairs. Even after everything they'd gone though, she still considered him her best and closest friend and while there had been talk between the pair of breaking ties when their plan had succeeded; she didn't see that happening.

She'd leave it up to him, she thought as she started to walk away. If he wanted to still have her in his life, then he'd either come after her or reach out to her soon.

With one last look at him, she hoped that things would start to settle for them both soon and they could find a way to keep their friendship intact –despite wanting to lead two very different lives.

* * *

 **A/N- Ahh! Guys, there is just one more chapter left to post for this season! I can't believe it, it feels like it wasn't so long ago that I was plotting and writing this season.**

 **I hope you'll all follow along with Bird's story in the sequel –which I'll have more details for after the next chapter.**

 **I want to thank Shadow knight1121, SwingingOnAStar, Melody Jane and Guestz for reviewing the last chapter. Also, a shout-out to Miss E Charlotte, as she works on getting caught back up. :)**

 **Also, to answer Guestz's question and in case anyone else was wondering the same thing; I don't really have a set schedule that I stick to with updating. I know I probably should, but life always seems to hectic anymore that I do the best I can to keep the chapters coming. Lol. That being said, I nearly always post a chapter during the weekend days.**

 **Happy New Year to you all!**

 **xx**


	52. Flightless Bird

**LII**

" _We ate the birds. We ate them. We wanted their songs to flow up through our throats and burst out of our mouths, and so we ate them. We wanted their feathers to bud from our flesh. We wanted their wings, we wanted to fly as they did, soar freely among the treetops and the clouds, and so we ate them. We speared them, we clubbed them, we tangled their feet in glue, we netted them, we spitted them, we threw them onto hot coals, and all for love, because we loved them. We wanted to be one with them. We wanted to hatch out of clean, smooth, beautiful eggs, as they did, back when we were young and agile and innocent of cause and effect, we did not want the mess of being born." - Margaret Atwood_

* * *

 **~(Flashback)~**

Oswald blew out a sigh as he returned the scattered chairs to the tables; it had been nearly an hour since the last patron at Fish's club had left and the doors locked behind them. Normally the bar staff took care of the cleanup after a busy night, but lately they had been short handed and everyone had been having to pick up the slack.

He looked over to see Butch drag a bag of trash through the room towards the exit near the dumpster and then his gaze stopped on Bird who was sitting at the bar with several papers in front of her.

At first he thought she was going over the books for the night or even double checking the liquor inventory, but as he walked closer he could see she was looking at various pamphlets. Each one with pictures of college campuses on brightly glossed papers, complete with pictures of students who were all smiles.

"What are you doing?" Oswald asked, sliding onto the stool next to her.

"Making a list." Bird simply answered, as she continued to write on the notepad she'd lifted from Fish's office earlier that night.

"May I see it?" He questioned, leaning closer to try and get a look at it.

"No." She chuckled, as she turned it over and tried to quickly gather up everything and changed the subject, "You want to go do something when were done here? I'm not ready to go home."

Instead of an answer all she got from her best friend was an intense stare as he silently demanded to know what was going on.

"We could get something to eat." Bird suggested, "Or go for a walk. Ooh, you could come over and we can rent a movie and stop by the mini-mart on the way to my apartment for snacks!"

"Bird." He complained, shaking his head back and forth. He nodded to the notebook and college pamphlets she was trying to hide with her arms, "What is all of this."

"My mom brought them to me." Bird side-eyed him before explaining, "She came in here last week looking for me, you know?"

"I hadn't heard." Oswald said, reaching up and loosening his tie in an attempt to better catch his breath.  
He wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but if Bird was debating leaving the club –leaving him, for any reason then it had to be stopped.

"It was a disaster." She sighed, rubbing her tired face as she remembered, "I was upstairs organizing a supply closet because Fish said I wasn't dressed up enough to be down here." Stopping to roll her eyes, she pulled in a breath and continued, "And while she was wandering around some guy was following her and ended up pushing her down and grabbed her purse."

Oswald shook his head as he listened to what had happened, they'd had more than few incidents like that lately.  
With Maroni's side gaining more power and territory, some people didn't have the same apprehension over committing crimes in Falcone's territories as they used to.  
Just another sign that the old man was losing his foothold as a mob boss.

"I saw the end of the scuffle." Bird admitted, with narrowed eyes as she replayed the night in her head. "I caught the bastard –before he could even make it to the doors. I got her purse back and I broke his arm for what he'd done."

Catching the look in her eyes as she tucked her long brunette hair behind her ears and suddenly grew silent, Oswald guessed, "Did you get in trouble with Fish?"

"No." Bird managed a chuckle, before looking at him from under her brows and pointing out, "Fish would have let me break every bone in his body to make an example out of him."

"But my mom saw it and she was…" Swallowing hard, Bird struggled to clear her throat, "She was completely horrified. I mean, this guy knocked her down and stole from her and yet somehow I'm the bad guy for stopping him –all because I hurt him on purpose. In what world does that make any sense?"

Oswald gave a weak shrug, more concerned about what the college brochures were about then about the story she'd been rehashing.

"Perhaps it shattered the illusion?" He finally offered up, "You're no longer her little girl. You've grown up and ventured off the beaten path."

"Yeah." She scoffed, "Off the beaten path and in their eyes down the worst route I could have taken or something and now they're both trying to get me out of the city. They don't think my life and the people around me are healthy."

"Is your father threatening to stop giving you money again?" Oswald guessed.

Ever since Bird had moved out on her own, she'd still been relying heavily on her parents for financial support and every so often Thomas Wayne threatened not to help her out until she got her life cleaned up.  
A threat he never actually followed through with.

"Sort of the opposite." Bird said, her lips pursing into a thin line as she turned on the bar-stool to better face her friend. "They offered me money –quite a bit of money to leave all of this behind." She said, holding her arms out and motioning to the nearly empty club around them.

"How much money?" He questioned.

"A lot." She vaguely answered, "They want me to further my education –somewhere far away from Gotham. My dad said they'd get me set up in a house and with Wayne Enterprises being such a huge company, that I could work part-time for them. You know, in some low level position without much responsibility… because why trust me with anything important?"

His heart started to pick up pace, beating erratically inside of his chest when he could practically see the wheels spinning in her head.

"You're really considering this?" He scrambled to ask. His voice came out strained and higher than usual as sweat started to bead across his forehead.

They still had so far to go with trying to take over the city. In many ways they were just starting to put the plan into motion –she couldn't abandon it now, she couldn't abandon him.

"Not at first. At first I pissed at them for trying to bribe me at all, but then… I don't know. How many people get the chance to start over, Oswald? I mean really get a brand new shiny clean slate to work with?"

"I'd guess not many." He strained out from between his clenched teeth.

"But why would you want to?" Oswald asked, "Why take an entry level position at your father's company when one day you will rule this city at my side?"

"I don't know." She helplessly shrugged with a low laugh. "Don't you ever just look around at this world we live in and think how entirely crazy it all is? Most people don't go to work every day reminding themselves not to step too far out of line or they could pay the price in blood."

"Yes." He agreed, "But we aren't most people, Bird."

"I suppose we're not." The smile on her lips didn't match the look in her eyes despite her best attempts.

"It will be worth it." He assured her, watching as she stood up and gathered up all of the contents she'd been looking through in her arms and walked behind the bar to drop all of them into the trashcan.

"I know." She agreed, "Just sometimes it feels like it could be lifetimes before we're actually at the top of the food chain." Pushing the thoughts to the side and trying to forget the looks on her parents faces when they'd sat her down and plead with her to take them up on their offer to start fresh somewhere far away.

"Speaking of food… you never answered me if you wanted to go get dinner or something." Bird reminded him.

With a smile and a single nod, Oswald answered, "Dinner sounds lovely."

"I'm gonna grab my coat and tell Fish we're heading out." Bird called over her shoulder as she walked away.

Oswald waited until she was out of sight before he scrambled to his feet and darted around the bar to fetch the notebook she'd thrown away in the trash, still open to the page she'd been writing on.

He saw that she'd been making a list of pros and cons for staying in Gotham and for trying to build a life somewhere else.

A smile spread over his lips when he saw that his name was atop the list of pros for staying in the city.  
Though the rush of happiness was soon snuffed out when he saw that on her list of pros for leaving the city she'd listed the possibility of finding love and having a family of her own. Along with the word 'happiness'.

"Oswald!"

He nearly jumped out of his skin and the notebook fell from his hands onto the floor as he spun around to face Bird, who stood with her arms crossed over her chest –clearly not happy with him now.

"My apologies." He sputtered out, and before he could stop himself he pointed out, "You've listed a lot of reasons on why leaving Gotham City would be for the best."

"And I have my fair share of reasons for wanting to stay too." She quickly countered, picking up the notebook and dropping it back into the trashcan.

"Forgive me, Bird…" He cleared his throat, "I couldn't help but notice some of the pros for leaving…"

When she silently waited for him to continue, he sighed, "You listed finding love and happiness as a pro for leaving –as if its something you'd be unable to obtain by staying here."

"Isn't it though?" She asked, with an exasperated sigh.

When she was met by a confused expression on her best friend's face, Bird gave some thought before she explained, "This city is like a wasteland. I'm not ever sure things like happiness and true love can even grow in Gotham."

"You're a romantic." He both accused and started to realize at the same breath as his eyes dropped to the floor.  
Bird had never brought up such topics in conversations before and it wasn't until then that he started to see that she hoped for more in her life then she'd openly shared with him.

"Stop throwing insults around, Oswald." Bird tried to joke, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears as her friend was now too lost in his own thoughts to hear her.

"Come on." She sighed, nodding towards the doors, "I'm starving, lets go."

"Bird." He called out when she started to walk away. "Haven't you ever seen a flower growing up through cracks in the middle of a sidewalk?"

"Yeah…" She shrugged, arching an eyebrow at him.

He nodded, as if she were to piece the rest of his thoughts together on her own. Something that clearly wasn't happening when she continued to stare at him.

"One can find what they're hoping for in the most unlikely of places." Oswald explained, "If a flower can sprout up from beneath cement; then I'm sure love and happiness could thrive anywhere –even in a place like Gotham."

 **~(End of flashback)~**

The morning light had just started to break through the dark clouds that had shadowed the city the night before as Oswald sat in the passenger seat of the car Gabe was driving.  
He'd just come from the hospital where he'd been stitched up and bandaged from the injuries he'd sustained during the fight the prior night.

As Gabe pulled to a stop outside a three story brownstone house, he asked, "This the right one, boss?"

"Yes." Oswald nodded, "Thank you, Gabriel."

With a slight struggle he got out of the car and tried to smooth his suit out, but he knew it was a wasted effort. He was a disaster; in tattered bloody clothes and greasy hair that he couldn't seem to keep out of his eyes.

Being rather embarrassed for his disheveled state, he lingered by the car before finally pushing open the wrought iron fence gate and hobbling up the walkway towards the front door of the house with a one track mind; Bird.

Not only had he seen she was injured and didn't check on her before she'd left, he'd also been regretting the conversation they'd had about ending their friendship when he became the King of Gotham and she gave up a life of crime to be with Harvey Dent.  
The things said between them had been spur of the moment and out of passion and rage, or at least that's what he was telling himself.

He didn't want to let her go, though in truth, that fact probably didn't even matter when it came down to it –he wasn't sure he _could_ let her go, even if he wanted to.

He was there to tell her that he wanted to continue their friendship and couldn't imagine a life without her in it.  
Deep down he hoped this taking over Gotham would be enough for her to see him in a more flattering light.

Stopping at the door, his eyes fell to what appeared to be dried blood on the cement. Looking behind him he realized there was a trail of blood leading to the door. Starting to feel frantic, he pushed the button for the doorbell and paused for a moment, before placing his ear against the front door and pushing the button again.

Must be broken, he thought to himself.  
From what she'd told him they were having to have the house renovated and things didn't always work right.

Raising his arm he knocked on the door, cringing as every strike of his knuckles against the wood made his already sore hand feel like his bones were splintering.

Catching movement from the corner of his eye he looked over to see the blinds on one of the windows snap back into place.

Taking the last opportunity to try and make himself appear somewhat presentable, he buttoned his suit jacket and brushed his hair from his eyes, but to his surprise no one came to the door.

After waiting for what he felt was a more than appropriate time, he knocked on the door again.

Finally the door opened, only it wasn't Bird who'd answered it and he was staring up to the very angry face of Harvey Dent.

Oswald cleared his throat and broke eye contact as he looked down, and he could see more blood on the hardwood floor just inside of the door.

"Is she okay?" Oswald asked, backing up as Harvey stepped outside and pulled the door to the house shut behind him.

When he didn't say anything, Oswald did his best to smile at the man who he felt had stolen the light of his life from him and said, "Hello. We've not been formally introduced, I'm Oswald Cobblepot-"

"I know who you are." Harvey gruffly said, cutting him off.

"Yes, well… I suppose there's no need for introductions." Oswald breathed, waving a hand in the air.

"What do you want?"

"I was hoping to speak with Bird." He answered truthfully.

"No." Harvey stated, crossing his arms over his chest as he continued to speak to him in the same unwavering, gruff voice that started to make Oswald feel like he was shrinking down with each second.

"No?" He stammered back, "If you'd only t-tell her I was here, I'm sure she'd-"

"She knows you're here." Harvey lied, knowing very well that Bird was in bed asleep, "She doesn't want to talk to you."

"Well, sir…" Oswald breathed clearing his throat, "I believe if that were true she'd send me away herself. The Bird I know has never needed anyone to speak for her."

"Yeah? Well then maybe this is coming from the one you don't know. The one who came stumbling home hours ago bleeding profusely from a stab wound on her side. Who was so shaken by whatever the hell went down last night, that she wouldn't let me take her to a hospital or call an ambulance."

Harvey's mind drifted back to how she'd made him call a number in her phone of a doctor who 'takes care of these things off the books' which was about the shadiest thing he'd ever heard, but she swore up and down the hospital wasn't safe and she'd rather bleed out than go there.

That the secret of her being Carmine Falcone's daughter was out and now with Maroni's death; there could be people out for revenge and looking for her.

"I spent two hours with her while some so called doctor who wouldn't even tell me his name performed what looked like minor surgery on her on our kitchen table and then stitched up her arm."

"Oh… I had no idea she was so seriously injured." Oswald admitted, guilt starting to rip away at his stomach with each newly learned fact. "I must insist I see her."

Taking a deep breath and telling himself that this was for Bird's own good, Harvey said, "It's over. Whatever kind of messed up bond you think you have with her; the one that sends her into the line of fire to help you time and time again –it's over now."

Oswald opened his mouth to argue, but Harvey didn't give him the chance.

"All the phone calls stop now; no reaching out to her when you're in trouble. No showing up at _our_ house out of the blue. No more anything –she's done with all of it and she is done with you." He said, as he took a few steps closer and in response Oswald continued to back away from him –thinking he seemed even taller than moments before.

"With all due respect friend, she and I-"

"We are not friends!" He snapped, catching Oswald off guard from the outburst.

"No, we aren't." Oswald agreed, his jaw tensing as he spoke. "I understand why you'd be angry with me."

"No, you don't understand anything… but I do." Harvey said, leaning down some to get closer to eye level with the man who stood more than few inches shorter than him, "You got in Starling's mind and you twisted things up. You've been manipulating her since she was a teenager; even coming to see her when she was in a treatment facility after she'd been through something horrific." Seeing the expression on Oswald's face, Harvey nodded, "Yeah, she tells me everything –told me everything about the two of you. You met her at a point in her life where she was vulnerable and you tricked her into thinking you were her friend to fill whatever sick, twisted mess is going on inside of that greasy head of yours and left her feeling all of this misguided loyalty to you."

Looking him over with a scrutinizing eye, Oswald flatly stated, "I have no idea what someone like her sees in you."

"The feeling is more than mutual." Harvey replied.

"You don't deserve her." Oswald said, his voice cracking as he spoke louder, "We share a deep bond, she and I. I know her better than anyone, better than you ever will."

"That's all in the past." Harvey said, his voice taking on a slight growl as he continued, "She wants a clean break from the life she was living. No more living a double life, no more illegal activity and no more you."

"Now…" Harvey breathed, "You got what you wanted –the deal was she helped you get to the top and she was free to do what she wanted and that is exactly what's happening. She's home with me, she's safe and her life will infinitely be better without you in it. So you can go now, Cobblepot… there's nothing here for you anymore."

Oswald looked down to the ground and then back up to Harvey with a hint of a smirk on his lips as he said, "Congratulations on the new house. Enjoy it and head this piece of advice my friend -treasure your time with her, the clock is ticking after all, and soon she'll want to fly free. You can only keep a wild animal caged for so long and you see…" He said nodding to the house behind Harvey, " _My Bird_ grows restless often –she doesn't do well when caged."

No longer backing away from him, Oswald took a step closer as he continued, "That part of her you expect her to hideaway will eventually resurface, she'll break free, and she will no longer be looking for you to save her. Some birds just aren't mean to be tamed."

"Get off my property." Harvey growled through his teeth.

"You should be careful of who you make enemies of, Mr. Dent. I'll still be here, lingering in the shadows, because mark my words –the day will come when your life no longer holds any importance to her." Oswald warned, his voice low and tone stronger, "And when that day comes…"

"Don't you ever threaten me!" Harvey yelled, the look on his face comparable to a rabid dog that had been set off its chain, he quickly moved forward. The almost demonic growl in his voice becoming more apparent as he continued, "I don't know what kind of game it is you're trying to play here, but you've already lost."

Oswald stared at him with his eyes growing wider as he nearly tripped over his own feet trying to back away; not only had Harvey's voice changed to one that barely even sounded human, but it was paralleled by the look on his face.

Taking a step back, Harvey pulled in a deep breath and made eye contact with nearly every ounce of fire and anger gone. He calmly said, "Look, if you have even one shred of humanity left in you, if you care about Starling at all then you'll just go. Leave her alone and let her move on in peace –let her be happy."

Oswald's eyes darted back and forth over Harvey's face, still shaken and thrown off by the sudden and aggressive shift in his mood, and how quickly he snapped back to normal.

Not feeling safe enough to put his back to him, Oswald backed up until his back found the fence he and located the gate –leaving without another word to him.

Just as he opened up the door to get back into the car, he paused as something white caught his eye on the uneven sidewalk beneath his feet. Taking a step to the side, Oswald looked down to see a single small white flower peeking up from the cement.

Looking back over his shoulder, he ignored the fact that Harvey was still standing outside and looked at house as a smile slowly spread over his lips.  
He wasn't sure exactly what it was that Bird thought she'd found there with Harvey Dent, but Oswald was convinced it wasn't the type of love and happiness she truly desired.

Moments ago he'd been plotting the district attorney's demise –it was what he deserved for taking the most important person in his life away from him.  
But now, he wondered why he should even waste the effort.

If he died –then the memory of him and the way Bird felt would forever be preserved in both her head and heart. That wasn't good enough, Oswald thought. No, Bird needed to realize just how wrong they were for each other and see the error of her ways.

Like watching a train veer off the tracks, he thought to himself as he finally got into the car and slammed the door shut. He'd been in many situations where he sat back and waited for people to destroy themselves, to tear down their own lives and he was positive that would happen here too.

Just like when he'd discovered Liza had been planted into Falcone's life by Fish. Most people would have rushed straight to the mafia Don with the newly learned information, but not him –no, he was smarter than that.  
The entire Liza plan had been a ticking time bomb and waiting for it to blow on its own had paid off in the end.

Essentially, he felt like this was the same sort of situation.

For now he'd bide his time, start getting his affairs as The King of Gotham in order –and soon enough his Bird would fly back to him. He was sure of it.

Harvey stood defensively in place, arms crossed over his chest until the car was out of sight. Then he went back inside the house, locked the front door and made his way up to their bedroom where Bird was laying on her side the bed, sleeping in one of his dark gray t-shirts.

Turning the light back off, he got into bed and scooted up behind her.

"Is everything okay?" She whispered, groggily as she raised her head and glanced over her shoulder at him.

"It is now." He said, giving her a smile as he gently laid his arm across her and she flinched and breathed, "Careful."

"I know." He whispered back, taking care to not touch where'd she'd been injured. Raising up he pressed a kiss to the back of her shoulder.

"What do you mean things are okay now?" She asked, struggling to keep her eyes open and awake.

"Just took care of some stuff down stairs." He vaguely answered, not about to tell her how he'd just ran the person she considered to be her best friend off their property.  
It was in her best interest he thought, he'd almost lost her that night and he was never going to go through that again.

Feeling her fingers intertwine with his as she moved her arm and laid it on top of his he added, "And it means that you're home, we're together and you're on the mend and…" Raising up some he looked down at her face as he added, "Our heat is actually working for the night."

His words earned a small smile from her despite the pain she was still in, and she turned her face up from the pillow to look at him as she said, "And tomorrows a new day –no more answering to Falcone or anyone else. It's just us."

Nodding he carefully leaned down and gently kissed her, as he repeated, "It's just us." As he laid back down next to her and held her close against him he said, "Now get some sleep –that shady mob doctor of yours said you need lots of rest."

She let out a small laugh, immediately regretting it when she felt like she'd been stabbed in the side all over again.

"I love you, Harvey." She whispered after several moments of silence had passed, he could tell the sound of her voice and the way her words were muffled against the pillow that she was nearly back to sleep.

"And I love you." He quietly said back, "More than anything."

 **~(A week later)~**

There was a restless feeling in the pit of her stomach as Bird sat on the couch in her living room and flipped through channels on the television.

Her eyes darted over to the large decorative clock on the far wall and she blew out a sigh at seeing it had only been a few minutes since the last time she'd looked.

She had nothing to do.

 _Absolutely nothing_.

It was a strange feeling for someone who'd spent the last few years of their life plotting, betraying and working mercilessly towards a goal.  
Almost every second of every day for the past few years had been filled with purpose and now here she sat; envious of how busy Oswald must be trying to get his new empire in order.

Maybe he could use her help, she thought to herself as she plucked her phone up from the coffee table but stopped herself before calling her best friend.

If he needed her help; he'd have found the time to reach out to her.  
The thoughts burnt behind her eyes as she started to wonder if he hadn't tried to contact her because he really didn't need her anymore.

All these years he'd talked of how he'd have nothing without her. So much so, that she'd constantly pushed her own wants to the back burner so she could be there at his side.  
And now here they were –over a week of not speaking and while he had an entire city at his fingertips and what did she have?

Swallowing hard, she pinned her eyes shut and reminded herself that she wanted a sense of normalcy in her life.

 _To be normal_.

Ordinary people didn't spend their days neck deep in underworld affairs and organized crime. Normal people had jobs and families to tend to and didn't typically live their lives constantly looking over their shoulder waiting for someone to take a shot at them.

Apparently, Bird thought to herself, normal was going to take some getting used to.

' _In other news; the trial of socialite Barbara Kean is expected to start early next month. Kean is facing homicide charges for the murder of her parents. It's rumored that her lawyers are plotting a defense based around a possible insanity plea. The district attorney has declined to comment at this time-'_

With an audible groan, Bird shut off the news and tossed the remote over to the end of the couch before standing up and running her fingers through her hair.  
If she didn't find something to occupy her time with soon, she was sure she'd be the next one having to plead insanity.

Bird walked into one of the spare rooms on the third floor in hers and Harvey's house, and looked around at all of the boxes they had stacked up. With everything that had been happening they hadn't had time to unpack everything yet.

It wasn't a permanent solution, but unpacking the rest of the way might fill her days for a few weeks if she took her time with it.

Temporarily forgetting about the still healing wound on her side she started to pick up a box to move, but she could feel the stitches pulling against her skin and she immediately stopped.

With a groan she sat down on the floor and pulled one of the boxes to her, opening the flaps she looked in to see it was a box from her apartment. One of the ones from her living room and right on top of everything was the framed copies of the invitations from the opening night at Oswald's club.

Swallowing hard she picked the frame up and ran her fingers over the glass, wondering how things were working out for him now that he was king. Gotham was still mostly in a state of chaos, but it had only been a week since the fall of Falcone's empire and she knew it would take some time for him to make it widespread knowledge that he was now in charge of the city and he was sure to be met with resistance.

There was a dull ache in her chest as she thought of how much she already missed him.  
She kept hoping he'd call her at some point, or maybe even stop by to see her –but she hadn't heard a word out of him since the night he'd killed Fish.

Bird was starting to believe that maybe he'd wanted to truly split up once it was over, like they'd spoke about in her apartment not too long ago –even though it now felt like that day had been lifetimes ago.

Trying to tell herself it was for the best, she thought that perhaps for them both to really move on with the lives they'd chose that maybe it had to happen –maybe they couldn't really continue on their different paths if they were still speaking.  
It was a hard pill to swallow, and it hurt on the way down –she still remembered the time that he swore he'd never leave her.

Laying the frame to the side she hoped that he was able to find happiness now that he had what he really wanted; now that he was finally king.

Pulling a few books out of the box and setting them all to the side, she stopped when an envelope fell out from between them and she caught sight of her father's handwriting on the front.

Her fingers shook as she picked the envelope up. It had been over a year since she'd received it upon learning about the large inheritance and shares in Wayne Enterprises that he'd left to her when her parents died –it was the day she'd first met Harvey.

Bird wasn't entirely sure why she'd never opened it in all that time; fear was part of it of course –she was still worried about what it might say. Knowing they were disappointed in her while they were alive was bad enough, she wasn't sure she could stomach reading about it after they were gone. Maybe it also had something to do with how hard a time she had accepting that they were really gone.  
There was such a sense of finality to it –holding her father's last words to her in her hands.

Pulling in a deep breath of air that felt so dry it burnt at her lungs, she turned the envelope over in her hands and slowly opened it to reveal a single page of paper –a handwritten letter.

' _Dear Starling,_  
 _I'm not sure how old you are now, but as I write this letter you are eighteen and determined to take on the world with a sense of fearlessness that can, I'm afraid, only be found in youth. The older I get the more aware I become how time is precious and in a single moment life can end. I've been feeling very mortal lately, which prompts the reason for this letter. I hope that I'm able to be here for many years to come, to share with you in all the important moments life has to offer and that I'm given long enough on this earth to repair what's broken between us._  
 _In many ways you are just starting out in life and I can't shake the feeling that I'm running out of time –there's a sense of dread that follows me everywhere now, weighs heavily on my burdened mind._  
 _I need you to know from the moment you entered our family, all I wanted was to keep you safe, for you to know how much we loved you and for you to be happy. But as I write this, it seems as though I've failed._  
 _I've hidden a great deal from you, details about who you are –I thought you were better off not knowing, but the secrets have been a dark stain on my life for years and now I can't help but wonder if my attempts to protect you has done more harm than good._  
 _You see, I had an older sister, Lilith. We were never close; in fact I don't feel like I ever truly knew her. We didn't speak about her and growing up I'd only see her a couple times a year when we'd visit the family chalet in Switzerland. The truth is, for lack of a better term, Lilith was disturbed. Struggling with demons inside of her that I never understood, often slipping into delusions and it was my understanding that she was kept in a facility for her own good. That she could get the help she needed in those walls, it wasn't until much later in my life that I came to realize keeping her apart from the family wasn't done in her best interest, but rather a strategic one from my parents to keep the Wayne name untarnished._  
 _I'm telling you this because Lilith is your natural mother, you are by blood my niece –but in my heart you are my daughter. Your natural father is in Gotham, but even in writing this letter I don't have the heart to give you his name. It's my fear that such knowledge will only drive you deeper into a world that can bring you nothing but pain and loss._  
 _You struggle with feelings of abandonment and I'm sure you grew up feeling as though you were unwanted by the ones who conceived you. I'm not condoning what my sister did, leaving you at a church when you were barely a month old, but in her way –through the inner workings of her troubled mind, I believe she was trying to save you. She didn't want you to have the life you were born into, nor did she trust the Wayne name or family because of what was done to her. She wanted you to have a chance at something different, live in happiness far away from the pain that she, herself, had grown up in._  
 _You would have been about three years old when I received a letter from her, in it she wrote that she'd made a terrible mistake leaving you behind. I didn't know you'd even existed until that day, she asked me to find you and bring you home. To raise you as my own and give you the best possible life and from that day forward, Martha and I never stopped searching for you. I also tried to find my sister, but there was no return address on the letter and the best P.I.'s I knew couldn't pick up a trail on her –wherever she is, whatever she's doing –I don't think she wants to be found._  
 _You deserve the truth and I hope in some way it can set you free, that better understanding who you are and where you came from can give you much needed peace, but I want you to know that this changes nothing for Martha and I. You are our daughter, you are a Wayne and ultimately I am proud of you. Proud of everything you've overcome and your inner strength that always shines through; you are a fighter –never forget that._  
 _I don't know how old you are as you're reading this, or where your life choices have gotten you so I won't offer up much fatherly advice, but I want you to know that I've seen your struggle. The battle between light and dark, a battle that you so often act like has already been lost –but it hasn't, not as I'm writing this to you. Sometimes the most important decisions to make are the hardest ones, but you make them anyway because it's the right thing to do. You know the difference between right and wrong, and while you seem to have lost your way, I'll leave you with this –look inside yourself, find your own light and always follow it._  
 _I love you.'_

Bird didn't even realize tears had been running down her face until she finished reading the letter and folded it up to slide it back inside the envelope. Tucking it between the books again, she placed them back inside of the box and laid the picture frame on top of it all before closing the flaps back shut and pushing it the side.

All that time she'd been afraid to read it, afraid to think that the last thing she'd hear from her father would be how disappointed he was in her when the exact opposite had been true. In many ways she felt silly now for how scared she'd been to open the envelope, but now she couldn't help but wonder how different the past year might have been if she'd only read the letter sooner.

She spent some time upstairs, sitting alone in the silence with only the company of her still troubled mind. Finally she made her way downstairs and realized how late it had gotten and as she neared the front door she slowed to a stop at seeing Harvey's keys in the decorative dish on the end table in the hallway where he always left them.

"Harvey?" She called out, finding it strange she hadn't heard him come in.

Her eyebrows lowered when she didn't hear anything in the quiet house. She checked his office, their bedroom, checked the bathrooms and still couldn't find any sign of him.

Her bare feet padded against the stairs as she quickly went back to the first floor and out of the front door, her heart starting to race with fear inside of her chest when she saw his car was in the driveway, but there was still no sign of him. It had gotten dark and all the streetlights were on, a soundtrack of sirens played in the distance and her head was spinning.

Going back inside the house, she went into the living room to get her cellphone and called him but stopped when something caught her eye. Turning her head, she looked out of their back patio doors that were standing wide open and she could see their back yard was illuminated with nothing short of hundreds of different color Chinese paper lanterns.

Dropping her phone back on the coffee table, she advanced towards the open door and stepped outside, as she looked around at all the beautiful lights, strung throughout their trees and floating in the three tier fountain. On the ground was a rose petal covered pathway with white light paper lanterns illuminating the way, biting down on her bottom lip she followed the path to a small table with a candlelight dinner set up. Even through the metal plate covers she could smell the herbs from their favorite Italian restaurant.

Turning back around her heart fluttered when she spotted him.

"How did you even…" She breathed, looking back around their backyard that had been transformed into something that looked like it had been pulled from a fairytale, "I've been inside this whole time…"

"I worked fast." He smiled, walking up and leaning down as he claimed her lips in a passionate kiss, before admitting, "I might have also had some help from your brother and Alfred."

"What?" She laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. "This is amazing… it's magical… I love it."

As his mouth landed on hers again, he thought back to when he'd proposed and she'd told him no, smiling he pulled back just enough to whisper, "How's this for a grand romantic gesture?"

"Harvey…" She breathed, shaking her head in disbelief as he kissed her once more before taking a few steps away from her. Swallowing hard and unable to wipe the smile off her face, she blinked rapidly in all of the twinkling lights as she complained, "You're going to make me cry."

By the time he'd knelt down on one knee, she was already swatting a few stray tears from her cheeks. It was beautiful, he was a beautiful person inside and out and she knew in those moments that she had never been more in love with him. Over the past year sometimes the ground they'd been standing on was shaky at best, but somehow they'd made it through together.

"I meant everything I said before." He softly said, smiling as he looked up and saw her eyes glistening in the lighting. "You are the most amazing person I've ever known and you mean everything to me. I want your face to be the last thing I see every night and the first thing I see when I open my eyes in the morning –every single day for the rest of my life. We've had our fair share of problems and disagreements, but I wouldn't trade a single moment of my time with you for anything. You are my entire world and I love you."

Raising her hands to her cheeks she wiped the tears away as she stared down to where he was knelt, it almost felt like a dream to her. It had to be a dream.

These miracle moments didn't happen in a place like Gotham, they didn't happen to someone like her.  
This should be the moment where some masked gunman jumps out from the shadows, or her phone would ring with new orders from Falcone.

But there wasn't any enemies to fight off in that second. Falcone was retired somewhere and she was free -no longer forced to live under anyone's thumb.

She was afraid to move, afraid to blink for fear of losing the moment –like if she actually let herself believe it was real that it would evaporate into thin air.

"Starling Wayne, will you marry me?" He finished.

"Yes." She answered, in a broken voice as she nodded frantically; but it wasn't until he'd slide the engagement ring onto her finger and stood to face her that it actually felt real.

Rushing forward she threw herself in his arms and he effortlessly caught her, their mouths sought out each other's and Bird wasn't sure if her feet were dangling above the ground or if she'd somehow defied the laws of gravity and was floating.

She was happy and that terrified her because it always seemed like every time she let herself be happy, something bad always followed. Good things never seemed to last for someone like her.  
But she tried to ward those feelings off and let herself enjoy the moment with the man she loved. It had been a long and often painful journey to get to where she was, but she'd fought tooth and nail to claw her way to this moment and it was worth it.

This was what she'd been fighting to gain her freedom for. This was what they both wanted and as he lowered her back down until her feet touched the ground she clutched onto him. Feeling safe and secure in his arms –a feeling she was still trying to get used to and she hoped that their love for each other was enough to keep the darkness in her at bay.

When her mouth found his again, she realized what being with him truly felt like –it felt like home.

 **~(Later the next week)~**

Bird trailed her fingers along the railing as she walked down the large staircase in Falcone's mansion. She remembered the dread she used to feel being there when she was working under him.

Now here she was, willingly stepping foot back inside –which was decidedly easier now that he wasn't going to be there.

In truth, she wasn't entirely sure how she ended up there to begin with. She'd left her own house intending to stop by and see her brother at Wayne Manor, before making a trip to the store.

Only she'd ended up at the mansion instead and had spent the last thirty minutes exploring rooms she'd never had reason to enter before and along the way had found a small box she'd been filling with random items she'd always had her eye on.

Nearly everything was still intact from when Carmine Falcone was residing there. It seemed as if he'd really left Gotham the very night Oswald had taken over.

Bird remembered back to when she'd had a discussion with Oswald of how she didn't want to turn into Falcone. She didn't want to live into her so called golden years alone with nothing but regret for company.

In many ways, seeing the state of his former residence reminded her of that conversation and how her words had rang true.

By the looks of it, he couldn't have taken more than a few packed bags with him when he'd gone. Everything else was disposable, nothing else was worth staying behind for –apparently not even her.

She tried to brush the bitter sting of those thoughts away. After all, she wasn't even entirely sure she wanted to ever see him again. The term 'bad blood' between them took on an all new meaning when she learned he was her biological father.

Walking over to a display case in the corner of the room, she opened it and pulled out a delicate glass figurine in the shape of a bird that had specks of purple hues nearly glittering when the sunlight passed through it.

Gently she laid it down in her keepsake box and closed the glass door over the front of the case just before she heard near silent footsteps enter the room followed by the sound of a gun being cocked.

"Victor." She greeted, holding back a smirk at her ability to know who was trying to sneak up on her by the sound of his footsteps alone. He was almost as quiet as her –almost.

Turning around to face him, she eyed the gun, "And here I thought we'd moved past your wanting to kill me."

"We have." He agreed, flashing a predatory smile that was all teeth when he added, "But that could change if there was a high enough price on your head."

She watched as he returned the gun to its holster, "We both know if you were trying to kill me it would be a fight to the death."

"Your death." He countered.

The pair stood and stared at each other for several intense silent moments, before Bird offered a small smile and asked, "What are you doing lurking around Falcone's old place?" Raising her eyebrows and guessing, "Victor Zsasz things?"

"I could ask you the very same thing." He replied with a smile of his own, "Bird things?"

"I don't even know why I'm here." She admitted, setting the box of down on a small end table and shrugging, "Maybe trying to find something –some trace of her."

"Her?"

"My mother."

"Ah." Victor nodded, walking further into the room to see what all she'd planned on taking with her when she went.

"Did you know?" Bird questioned, not giving him time to ask what she meant, she added, "That Falcone is my real father?"

"Not for certain." Victor explained, "But I had my suspicions. After all, why else would he have wanted to keep you around when you were far more trouble alive than dead and then there's the picture-"

"Picture?" Bird cut him off.

Instead of an answer, he turned and left the room.

"Are you coming back?" She called after him, but didn't receive any indication that he'd even heard her.

Several minutes had passed and Bird was just about to finish gathering her things and leave, when Victor returned to the room and silently held out a framed picture.

Bird slowly advanced forward and took it from him, gathering a bit of strength with a deep breath before she looked at it.

It was a black and white picture of Falcone, clearly taken many years prior considering he looked quite a big younger. He was sitting on the stone steps in the park –where he'd often spend time in the morning throwing bits of bread to the pigeons.

Only he wasn't alone –sitting next to him was a woman in a floral print dress with a wide brim sunhat atop her long raven hair. The photo had caught her in the middle of a laugh, with her head tilted back and mouth open wide.

Bird's own mouth hung slightly open as she gingerly trailed her fingertips over the glass inside the frame, noting that the nameless woman wasn't the only one who appeared happy. Falcone was wearing a smile on his face as well –a smile, the likes of which she hadn't seen on him before.

It was a moment struck in freeze frame –from another time that felt worlds away.

She had no idea what was had been said between them and found herself wondering if he'd said something funny to elicit the laugh or maybe they'd both seen something laughable. Either way; they looked happy.

Her eyes went back to the woman in the picture and Bird could feel it in her chest that she was catching a glimpse of her biological mother.

Victor told her of how he'd caught Falcone looking at the picture a few times, but he'd normally kept it on the bottom shelf of a bookcase in a locked upstairs room out of sight from everyone.

"She's beautiful." Bird whispered, trailing her fingers over the intricate carved designs on the old wood frame.

"You look like her." He acknowledged and she joked, "Did you really just compliment me?"

"So, what's next for Victor Zsasz?" She found the strength to ask as she pulled her eyes away from the picture and laid it her keep box.

"Falcone's retired." He said out loud, thinking how the words sounded alien to his ears. The man he'd worked under for years was no longer calling the shots in Gotham and in the matter of a few weeks it felt like his own world had been partially uprooted.  
With a despondent shrug he guessed, "Find my next payday… looks like I'm a free agent now."

Giving some thought to how much she'd grown and learned during their time of training and working together he wondered if they'd end up vying against one another for contract kills.

"What's next for Bird?" He finally asked.

"Living my life out of the shadows for the first time in a very long time." She said with an airy sigh, "I've got my brother I should be looking after and I'm engaged."  
No longer speaking to him and more so thinking out loud, she added, "I don't know what's next for Bird… maybe she's done. I guess it's time for Starling Wayne to step up appearances at company events and there's a wedding and parties to plan and-"

"It sounds terrible." Victor observed, cutting her off when he couldn't stomach the mundaneness of it all. Nodding to the engagement ring on her finger, he continued, "Guess that ring really does come with a ball and chain."

"Ha-ha." She sighed, "It doesn't sound that bad."  
In the same breath, her heart started to race and she blurted out, "Oh my god, it does sound terrible."

"Told you." He nodded.

Managing a smile, she shook her head and tried to convince herself that it was just new-life jitters and the adjustment of it all causing her to feel like she couldn't be the person she was expected to be.  
"It'll be fine."

His forehead wrinkled as he gave her a disbelieving look and started to turn and walk away.

Her breathing was still a little rattled as she helplessly called after him, "It's what I'm supposed to do, it's who I'm supposed to be. Someone my parents would have really been proud of-"

"Aren't they dead?" Victor said in a teasing voice as he looked over his shoulder at her.

"You know they are." She gruffly replied, her eyes narrowing as she took a few steps towards him.

"Then what's the point of trying to make them proud?" He couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the ridiculous thought of it all.

"It's not that simple." Her tongue was sharp with the argument.

"Silly. Little. Bird." He teased with another menacing smile as he turned around to face her and referenced the first time they'd ever crossed paths, "Deep down you're still that teenager with glitter in her hair –always making everything more complicated than it is."

Rolling her eyes, her arms crossed defensively over her chest and she stubbornly shook her head at him.

Letting out a frustrated sigh of his own, he walked back up to her and gruffly pointed out, "You're complaining because the people around you expect you to be something you don't want to be. It is simple –Falcone's gone and no one is forcing you to do anything anymore. What do you want?"

"What do I want?" A laugh slid out from between her teeth and she shook her head, "Does that even matter? Has that ever mattered to anyone?"

"Not if it doesn't matter to you." He simply responded with another shrug.

Swallowing hard she broke eye contact with him and he gave one last look around the room before he started to leave.

"Victor!"

He came to a stop and pulled in a breath, about to let her know that he had better things to do then stand around listening to her problems.  
If he were to have a business card; it would read hitman –not therapist.

Before he could say anything she offered some advice of her own, "You should for see Oswald for work."

"Penguin?" He scoffed.

"He's going to meet a lot of resistance to him running the city. Think about it, there's going to need to be a lot of threats eliminated and he knows you're the best out there. He's fair… probably might even pay you more than Falcone did." Her voice lowered some and there was a tinge of sadness as she added, "He needs people on his side."

"Goodbye, Bird." Victor said, glancing back at her once last time before leaving the mansion.

Gathering the box back up, she looked around the now otherwise empty room. Pulling in a deep breath she slowly exhaled and repeated his words, "Goodbye, Bird."

* * *

 **A/N - …and the end!  
^_^ Thank you guys so much for reading all 52 chapters of We Were Born Sick.  
This story is now complete, but Bird's journey is far from over. I will soon be posting the next installment which will be titled 'Wasteland'.  
If you'd like me to message you when the sequel is up, just let me know either in a review or a message.**

 **I hope you all liked the ending chapter! I wanted to give it a sense of finality for those of you who might not be planning on reading the next story.**  
 **I've given a lot of thought and consideration to where Bird's journey is leading and the sequel is going to be Jim/Bird/Oswald.  
Harvey Dent will still be in there, especially towards the beginning of it, but in writing this story I just really fell in love with Jim and Bird and I can't wait to develop a deeper relationship between them and see where it goes.**  
 **And of course, Oswald is still going to be a major part of Bird's life and we know how he feels about her, but the line for how Bird feels for him is blurry at best. So who knows where this could all end up? Lol.**

 **I'm hoping you'll all continue to stick with me no matter what the pairing is.  
I've always felt from the beginning that this is much more about Bird's story and struggles and the romance aspect is secondary. **  
**But if you happen to be so invested in Bird x Harvey that you don't want to read it without their pairing, then hopefully you can take some solace in the ending here and pretend that they get a happily ever after. :P**

 **I want to thank Shadow knight1121, Melody Jane and SwingingOnAStar for reviewing chapter 51! :)**  
 **And an extra special thank you to Miss E Charlotte, who has been there with me and supporting me from day one with this story. Thank you for supporting me every single step of the way and for your reviews. I'm glad you got caught up!**

 **I feel like there is so much more to say, but this is a long enough note as it is. Lol.**

 **As I said earlier, if you'd like to know when 'Wasteland' is posted –just let me know.**

 **Thank you all so much!**

 **xx**


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